Lawyer accuses army of trying to extort Hebron shooter to drop appeal

Military judges will rule Thursday on whether IDF soldier Elor Azaria, convicted of killing a disarmed, incapacitated Palestinian assailant last year, can remain out of jail, as his one remaining lawyer mounted an appeal and went on the attack against the military prosecution and others.

Yoram Sheftel, an attorney for Azaria, filed an appeal against his 18-month jail sentence, along with a motion requesting that Azaria’s entry into prison, set for March 5, be delayed until the end of the appeals process.

The move came as Azaria’s other lawyers quit, apparently over a dispute on whether to appeal his conviction and prison term.

The court at the IDF headquarters in the Kirya base in Tel Aviv will decide on whether Azaria’s prison sentence can be delayed on Thursday afternoon.

Azaria, 21, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced last week for shooting dead Abed al-Fattah al-Sharif on March 24, 2016, minutes after Sharif and another man had carried out a stabbing attack on troops in Hebron, and as Sharif lay on the ground bleeding after having been shot during the attack.

The incident and ensuing trial exposed divides in the country and became wrapped in political disputes.

Sheftel told journalists that the military had tried to extort Azaria and the legal team to prevent an appeal.

He claimed that prosecution lawyers met with Azaria’s family, telling them that the army would not appeal the leniency of the sentence if they also dropped their plans to appeal.

According to Sheftel, this “scandalous statement borders on a threat of extortion.”

“The establishment worked together with the media puppies to prevent [the appeal] but did not succeed and the appeal was filed,” he said at a press conference Wednesday.

Sheftel implied that the prosecution would argue in its appeal that the 18-month sentence for Azaria’s manslaughter conviction was insufficient and demand a harsher punishment. During sentencing, the chief prosecutor Lt. Col. Nadav Weissman sought a three to five-year prison term.

“This borders, in a sense… on blackmail,” Sheftel said.

During the sentencing, the army was criticized for apparent contacts made between IDF officials and Azaria’s family to try to convince them to drop plans to appeal.

Azaria’s father Charlie said the family was determined to continue fighting for his son’s name to be cleared.

“They are trying to scare us, but my struggle continues, because this is the struggle of all parents whose sons might be in the same situation. I will not give up,” he said.

He added that “the court made a mistake when it convicted my son. All citizens know Elor is innocent.”

Shortly after Sheftel filed the appeal, three other members of Azaria’s defense team, Ilan Katz, Eyal Besserglick and Karmit Shahiber, announced they were resigning from the case, saying they disagreed with the family’s decision to pursue an appeal.

The lawyers said in a statement that they believed Azaria would have been better served by pursuing a different route, an apparent reference to plans to request a pardon.

Sheftel attacked the other lawyers for withdrawing, claiming they were intimidated by the prosecution.

In a statement, the army said it “rejects to the end” Sheftel’s claim, but did not dismiss the possibility of military prosecutors filing an appeal for a harsher sentence.

“The military advocate general will continue to work substantively. The decisions whether or not to file an appeal has yet to be made, but will be in the coming days,” the army said.

Azaria’s three lawyers who opposed the appeal also rejected Sheftel’s claims, saying that their recommendation to forgo the appeal was based on what they thought was best for Azaria in their legal opinions and that they had not been intimidated by the prosecution.

They also accused Sheftel of misrepresenting himself as part of the defense team from the beginning of the legal process, when in fact he officially joined the other lawyers only some two months ago, after the verdict had been given. They said that he was only able to file the appeal with their help.

“We are not tired and we’ve not weakened,” said the three lawyers in a statement. “We wrote the appeal for attorney Sheftel. However, the leniency of [Azaria’s] punishment speaks for itself.”

“Even though we believe that the verdict is incorrect and does not match the evidence, we feel that we have done the maximum in this avenue and now it is time to use other channels to do what is best for the soldier,” they said.