Israeli soldier convicted over Hebron death

AN Israeli soldier filmed shooting dead a wounded Palestinian attacker after he had been disarmed of a knife has been convicted of manslaughter.
Sgt Elor Azaria, 20, shot Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, 21, in the head while he was lying immobile on a road.
The incident happened in Hebron in the occupied West Bank last March, after another soldier was stabbed.
Sgt Azaria said he thought Sharif might have an explosive vest, but prosecutors said his motive was revenge.
The high-profile trial has proven extremely divisive in Israel, said the BBC in Tel Aviv.
There have been rallies to support the soldier and some senior politicians backed Sgt Azaria. However, top military figures were quick to say that his actions did not reflect the values of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
In the incident on 24 March, Sharif and another 21-year-old Palestinian, Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier before troops opened fire on them, wounding Sharif and killing Qasrawi.
Footage of the scene several minutes later, filmed by a Palestinian and released by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, shows Sharif alive.
A soldier, identified as Sgt Azaria, is then seen cocking his rifle and fatally shooting Sharif from several metres away.
In their indictment, prosecutors said Sgt Azaria “violated the rules of engagement without operational justification as the terrorist was lying on the ground wounded and represented no immediate threat for the accused or others who were present”.
Delivering the verdict on Wednesday, the panel of three military judges rejected Sgt Azaria’s defence that he shot Sharif because he continued to pose a threat.
He had told the court that he believed there might be a suicide belt under the Palestinian’s jacket.
The judges, who took two-and-a-half hours to deliver their verdict, noted that Sgt Azaria’s commanders had testified that he did not mention the same concerns when they questioned him immediately after the shooting incident.
The judges also said there was no dispute regarding the veracity of the statements made by another soldier, who testified to military investigators that Sgt Azaria had told him during the incident: “They stabbed my friend and tried to kill him – he deserves to die.”
Sgt Azaria told the court that he did not recall having any such conversation, but the head of the judging panel, Col Maya Heller, described him as an “unreliable witness”.
“His motive for shooting was that he felt the terrorist deserved to die,” she said.
Prosecutor Lt Col Nadav Weissman said: “This is not a happy day for us. We would have preferred that this didn’t happen. But the deed was done, and the offence was severe.”
A spokesman for Sgt Azaria’s family said evidence proving his innocence had been ignored. “It was like the court was detached from the fact that this was the area of an attack,” he said.
The soldier’s mother, Oshra, shouted at the judges: “You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
The defence team has said it will appeal against the verdict. Sentencing is expected in the next few weeks. Manslaughter in Israel carries a maximum 20-year term.
Sharif’s father Yusri was quoted as saying Sgt Azaria deserved a life sentence. Sharif’s uncle, Fathi, told Haaretz that the decision to try him for manslaughter rather than murder was “a perversion of justice and of the court”.