Tel Aviv: An Israeli military court on Tuesday sentenced a soldier to 18 months in prison for shooting dead an injured Palestinian the regime claims was an assailant.
Judge Maya Heller handed down the sentence a month after Elor Azaria, 21, was found guilty of manslaughter for killing Abdul Fatah Al Sharif as he lay on the ground in the southern occupied West Bank in March last year.
Prosecutors had demanded a three-to-five year sentence, but the panel of three judges decided that would be too severe.
Heller said they had taken into account mitigating factors including the “harm suffered by his family” and the fact Azaria was in “hostile territory” when the shooting occurred.
She added, however, that he had not expressed remorse for his actions.
The offence carried a maximum sentence of 20 years.
He has already spent 10 months in detention at an Israeli military base and it was not immediately clear if Tuesday’s sentence includes time served.
Azaria’s family didn’t react in court as the sentence was passed, but Sharif’s father in the southern West Bank had called the trial a “farce.”
The March 2016 shooting in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron was caught on video by a rights group and spread widely online.
It showed Sharif, 21, lying on the ground, shot along with another Palestinian after allegedly stabbing and wounding a soldier, according to the army.
Azaria then shoots him again in the head without any apparent provocation.
Azaria claims he feared Sharif was wearing an explosives belt and could blow himself up, killing nearby soldiers and onlookers with him. The claim was rejected by the judges.
The trial opened last May at a military courtroom in Tel Aviv’s Jaffa district, but later moved inside to a tightly-guarded military complex.
Police have made arrests over online death threats against a judge and other officials and the army has assigned bodyguards to the three judges who convicted Azaria.
Another man was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence against armed forces chief of staff Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot, who ordered the prosecution of Azaria, during a rowdy protest immediately following the verdict.
“Police are ready for any exceptional incident,” police spokesman Luba Samri told AFP. “Police are prepared for any scenario, anywhere in the country.”
Around 100 demonstrators protested outside the court against the sentence, an AFP photographer on the scene said.
Azaria entered the packed courtroom around midday (1000 GMT) to applause from friends. Dressed in military uniform and smiling broadly, he hugged family members and his girlfriend.
Before the judge entered, his father Charlie told his supporters to respect the ruling.
“None of us have any expectations, we shall accept the sentence whatever it may be,” he said.
Right-wing Israelis have argued he has been abandoned by the army and his leadership.
Around 100 demonstrators protested outside court against the sentence, an AFP photographer on the scene said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said he favoured pardon for Azaria and called up his father to express sympathy.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the radical Jewish Home party, also urged clemency.
“This soldier should not spend a single day in prison. If he is found guilty, he should immediately be pardoned,” he said in a radio interview in October.
A poll by pro-Netanyahu newspaper Israel Hayom found that around 70 per cent of Israelis favoured a pardon for Azaria.
The dead Palestinian’s father, Yusri Al Sharif, says Azaria deserved a life sentence.
