Soldier gets 26-month prison sentence for accidentally killing comrade
Meiran Mizrahi convicted of reckless manslaughter for shooting Yonatan Granot, 23, of the Nahal Brigade, last year; also handed 2-year suspended term, demoted to private
An Israel Defense Forces soldier who accidentally shot and killed his comrade on a military base in the Jordan Valley last year was sentenced to 26 months in prison by a military court on Wednesday.
The defendant, Staff Sgt. Meiran Mizrahi, shot 23-year-old Staff Sgt. Yonatan Granot of the Nahal Brigade on February 23, 2021. He was convicted this April of reckless manslaughter.
The court also lifted a gag order on identifying Mizrahi, who until now had only been identified by his Hebrew initial Mem.
Mizrahi received a further two-year suspended sentence, was demoted to the rank of private and ordered to pay Granot’s family NIS 12,000 in compensation.
Following the sentencing, Mizrahi’s lawyer released a statement reiterating his sorrow over the incident.
“The soldier and his family again send their condolences to the family of Yonatan Granot of blessed memory,” the statement said, adding that they were good friends.
It said that Mizrahi continues to be “tormented and pained by the terrible, tragic death and continues to receive psychiatric treatment due to the severe post-traumatic stress disorder he is suffering from.”
According to military prosecutors, Granot was struck by a .22-caliber round from a Ruger rifle, a type of munition normally used for riot dispersal as it is considered less lethal than the larger-caliber rounds typically used by the military.
Earlier that day, a number of soldiers had trained with the rifles. After they finished, they lay the rifles down in a line close to the base’s guard post.
According to military prosecutors, at around 10 p.m., the defendant, a soldier at the base who was not qualified to use the weapon, picked up one of the rifles and looked through its scope without checking to see whether or not it was loaded.
“[The defendant] aimed the gun toward a hilltop within the camp… The defendant looked through the scope of the rifle and pulled the trigger,” prosecutors said.
The bullet struck Granot in the head, critically injuring him. He was taken by helicopter to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem for treatment and was pronounced dead three days later.
Mizrahi has been under house arrest since being released from the military last year.
In November, several high-ranking officers received an official reprimand and lower-ranking ones were removed from their positions over the incident.
The Times of Israel Community.