JERUSALEM, March 14 (Xinhua) -- A high-profile Israeli soldier convicted of killing a wounded, incapacitated Palestinian, asked on Wednesday a military court to cut his prison time by half.
In 2017, Sgt. Elor Azaria was found guilty of manslaughter and a military court sentenced him 18 months in prison, of which Azaria needs to serve only 14 after the Israeli chief of staff slashed his punishment by four months.
On Wednesday, Azaria's lawyer appealed the court, charging the soldier should be released because he "has been living in a nightmare for the past two years," since his trial began.
Azaria himself addressed the court, asking the judges to release him "today," ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover, also known as the "holiday of liberation."
Azaria reiterated his version of events, according to which he shot the Palestinian suspect because he believed the man carried an explosive underneath his coat.
In the trial and in a series of appeals, the court rejected Azaria's version, concluding there was no base for his claim, and convicted him with manslaughter.
Chief military prosecution Chief Military Prosecutor, Colonel Sharon Zagagi Pinhas, said that the prosecution would not object to cut a third of Azaria's sentence, meaning he could walk free on May 10. "Considering that the information received indicates positive behavior in prison, we decided to leave the question of the deduction of a third of his punishment to the (parole) committee," she said.
The court said their decision would be given "in the next few days."
On March 24, 2016, Azaria was a 19-year-old military medic in the West Bank city of Hebron when Abdel Fattah 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 high-profile 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.
