Elor Azaria, who shot and killed an immobilized Palestinian terrorist in Hebron in March 2016, has been denied the immediate release from prison he requested last week.
However, the parole board agreed to shorten his 14-month sentence by almost a third, and he is now due to be released on May 10, after serving nine months behind bars.
Azaria, a former IDF medic, was arrested after being filmed walking up to and shooting a terrorist who was lying on the ground after having been subdued by soldiers. The terrorist had stabbed two members of an army patrol in Hebron. Azaria later claimed he believed the terrorist had been fitted with a bomb.
The case rocked the Israeli public and attracted international interest. In July 2017, a military court convicted Azaria of manslaughter. However, he was given a relatively light sentence of 18 months in prison. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot later shortened the sentence to 14 months.
It is accepted practice for a prisoner to be paroled after serving two-thirds of a sentence, assuming good behavior. Azaria has reportedly been a model prisoner and has been awarded furloughs every 28 days since he entered prison.
Last week, seven months into his prison term, Azaria petitioned the parole board for immediate release and asked to be allowed to celebrate Passover, which begins on March 30, as a free man. Had the parole board agreed, it would effectively have cut his sentence by half.
The military prosecutors argued that there was no precedent for a prisoner convicted of manslaughter to be awarded such a drastic reduction.
The Azaria family was reportedly disappointed by the parole board's decision and hopes that President Reuven Rivlin – who previously denied a request to pardon Azaria – will still grant him clemency ahead of Passover.
Azaria's sister, Etti Azaria, issued an angry response to the court's decision, criticizing the fact that the family learned about the decision through the media.
"Today, while we were visiting Elor, our phones were flooded again by the media that won't let up and is waiting for our response about the request for half [the sentence to be cut]," she wrote.
"So again, during a visit, my family and Elor himself get the parole board's answer from the media! There's one word for this – contempt! How can it happen again that the media knows before the family does? Before Elor? Before our lawyers? It happened with the president's decision [to deny Azaria a pardon] and it's happening again!
"I'm asking, why? How much more can we be abused? How much more can our hearts be broken? On Wednesday. March 14, Elor asked the parole board to shorten his sentence by half. I was sitting in the hearing and I heard every word from the prosecution, which is refusing to shorten his sentence by half, because he harmed the sanctity of life of a terrorist! Of someone who was coming to kill us and wasn't really thinking about the sanctity of life of our soldiers and our innocent Jewish civilians! The military prosecutor didn't have a single argument why my brother's sentence shouldn't be shortened! And they still chose not to! The system was trying so hard to be nice that they refused to cut half [of his sentence]. …. I'm just disgusted!"
