Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has turned to President Reuven Rivlin to pardon former IDF soldier Elor Azariya, who is serving a prison term for manslaughter. Having written to IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-General Gadi Eizenkott seeking leniency, Eizenkott reduced the sentence by four months.

In his letter to President Rivlin, Liberman writes “Elor and his family paid a high personnel and family price”.

He opens his letter, “Mr. President, there are few provisions in which the interest of a single person becomes a mirror of the entire Israeli society, like the case before us. Israeli society stood in this case to demonstrate that, more than any event in recent years.”

“I was one of the many who believed that in light of the circumstances, there is no place for a criminal trial against the soldier, but when he was tried, and when the court handed down its ruling, I stood by the military justice system, because in a state of law we live and the rulings of the military court must be respected.”

“Elor and his family paid a heavy personal and family price in dealing with Elor’s trial and with a long and unprecedented public exposure, which even seemed to exact a heavy health price,” Lieberman added.

“We send our daughters and sons to protect and defend the security of the state and the peace of the public, placing them in complex situations unlike any other in the world, and demanding that they act as well as properly balancing the great importance of the rule of law with the bravery, amid the public and personal considerations,” the defense minister said.

In conclusion, he said, “In view of all of this, and even in light of our being a few months before the State of Israel’s 70th Independence Day, I believe that this affair which shook Israeli society should be stopped at this time with the soldier and his family, and to exhibit chessed and rachamim and to respond favorably to calls to pardon Elor Azaria.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)