Azaria may be willing to abandon appeal, lawyer says

An attorney for the Israeli soldier sentenced to 18 months in prison for killing a wounded Palestinian stabber said Wednesday that the defense team was willing to forgo an appeal under certain circumstances.

Elor Azaria, 21, was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in prison, along with two suspended sentences of 12 and six months and demotion to private, capping a high-profile case that had exposed deep divisions in the country. He was convicted in January of manslaughter and attorneys had said they planned to appeal the ruling.

But his attorney Ilan Katz told Army Radio that the defense team’s top priority is for Azaria to come out of the ordeal “with as little damage as possible.”

“If the army is wise enough to approach us with a satisfactory agreement, we will not pursue an appeal at all costs,” Katz said.

Following a scathing decision read out alongside Azaria’s guilty verdict in January, many saw the 18-month sentence as relatively light, leading to speculation that the defense team may drop its plans to appeal even as politicians pushed for Azaria to receive a full pardon.

Katz admitted that the 18-month sentence was light “in comparison to the draconian verdict,” but said it didn’t make it the ruling any easier on Azaria.

Referring to IDF officer Ofek Buchris, who in early February accepted a seven-month suspended sentence plea bargain over rape and sexual assault charges, Katz pointed out that if the army was willing to significantly reduce charges for him, it could do the same for Azaria.

However, in what seems to be a failure of coordination on the part of Azaria’s lawyers, a separate defense team attorney told Army Radio shortly afterward that “there will be an appeal.”

Azaria was filmed on March 24, 2016, killing a Palestinian who had just been shot while carrying out a stabbing attack in Hebron. He was jailed for nine days, then released to on-base arrest, where he has been for 10 months.

Only the nine days will count against his sentence, but Azaria could end up serving less than a year if he gets time off for good behavior. He is slated to enter prison on March 5.

After the sentencing, judges granted the defense team’s request to delay the jailing for 12 days while they put together an appeal.

‘Protect the IDF’

Reactions to the sentencing have been relatively evenly divided along party lines, with coalition members calling for an immediate pardon and opposition MKs praising the verdict.

Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) expressed “reservations” Wednesday about the calls from fellow lawmakers for Azaria to be pardoned immediately.

“Many politicians have given legitimacy to attacks against judges as well as the military justice system,” Steinitz said.

“What is wrong with you?” he continued, referring to politicians in his own camp. “Don’t you understand that we have to protect the IDF?…we cannot give legitimacy to any soldier who decided to act on his own.”

Steinitz’s comments place him in a minority within Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government, where he is joined by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, who stopped short of urging a pardon, and MK Yehuda Glick (Likud) who praised the military legal system for its “balanced” sentence.

Judah Ari Gross and Stuart Winer contributed to this report.