The trial Sergeant Elor Azaria, the Kfir Brigade soldier who shot dead an already-neutralized terrorist in Hebron last March, begins Monday morning at Jaffa Military Court.
Azaria was charged with manslaughter and inpporpriate behavior last month at the Jaffa Military Court.
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“The soldier took several steps towards the terrorists, aimed at his head and fired a single bullet from short range. This the defendant did in contravention of the rules of engagement and without operational justification, ” the indictment said.
The judge criticized both the defense and the prosecution and warned of the weakness of the evidence against Azaria.
The incident occurred on March 24, when two terrorists armed with knives stabbed a soldier, moderately wounding him, at an IDF post near the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in Hebron. One of the terrorists was shot dead, but the second, Abed al Fatah a-Sharif, was neutralized and lay wounded on the ground.
A video filmed several minutes later by B’Tselem shows Azaria shooting the neutralized terrorist in the head.
Prosecutor Lt.-Col. Adoram Rigler said at the court hearing last April that “the terrorist who was shot by the soldier did not pose a risk to him or to anyone around him. There is a strong evidentiary basis to prove the indictment.”
The defense, meanwhile, claimed that “The testimony and evidence ruled out a vengeful motive for the shooting. The pathologist said she cannot rule out that the terrorist might have moved his hands.”
