JERUSALEM, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday urged President Reuven Rivlin to accept a request to pardon a soldier convicted of shooting dead an incapacitated Palestinian knifeman.
The army has denounced Elor Azaria following last March's incident in the West Bank city of Hebron. A military court found him guilty of manslaughter and sentenced him 18 months in prison, of which Azaria will have to serve only 14 because the Israeli chief of staff slashed his punishment by four months.
In a letter to Rivlin on Sunday, Liberman recommended the president to accept Azaria's request for clemency, saying releasing him "serves the public interest" and would help "stitch together the rips" in Israeli society.
The minister asked the Rivlin to grant Azaria a pardon for the remainder of his prison term, which he started to serve on Aug. 9.
Lieberman defined the deadly shooting of Abdel Fattah al-Sharif while he was lying incapacitated on the road, as "an operational mistake."
On March 24, 2016, Azaria was a 19-year-old military medic in Hebron when al-Sharif, 21, and Ramzi Aziz al-Qasarwi carried out a knife attack, lightly wounding a soldier.
Troops shot dead al-Qasarwi and gravely wounded al-Sharif. Al-Sharif was lying on the ground, motionless, when Azaria arrived at the scene and shot a single bullet to his head.
The deadly shooting was caught on a video by a human rights organization and spread widely on social networks.
The case has deeply divided the Israeli society. While senior military officers condemned the act as a serious breach of military orders, many Israelis hailed Azaria as a "hero." Many right-wing leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have spoken out in favor of Azaria being pardoned.
