IDF soldier gets 3 years in plea deal for killing comrade

A military court accepts a plea deal with an Israeli soldier who had been convicted of reckless homicide for the killing of a comrade on an army base near Jerusalem earlier this year, and sentences him to three years in prison.

According to an indictment filed earlier this year, the Military Police soldier, Pvt. Binyamin Fentaye, entered a room on the Anatot Base on the night of January 2, picked up a gun that wasn’t his, and “carried out various actions” that resulted in a bullet discharging from the rifle, killing Cpl. Baruch Kabarta.

The soldier, who was detained shortly after the deadly incident, has also been convicted of obstruction of justice after he allegedly tried to dissuade another soldier who was in the room at the time from talking about the shooting.

Following a mediation process between prosecutors and the soldier’s defense team earlier this month, Fentaye confessed to the charge of reckless homicide, and the sides requested that he be sentenced to three years in prison.

The court has now accepted the plea deal, and sentences the soldier to three years.