Charlie Azariya
Charlie AzariyaYonatan Sindel, Flash 90

The father of former IDF infantry soldier Elor Azariya filed a complaint with the Police Internal Investigations Unit (Mahash) on Monday, after the rejection of his son Elor’s weapon permit application was leaked to the media even before Elor himself had received a response, 0404 reported.

Former soldier Elor Azariya was released from military prison in May, after serving a sentence for a manslaughter conviction over the shooting death in March 2016 of a wounded terrorist in Hevron. The terrorist was suspected of carrying a suicide vest and had already wounded another soldier before Elor opened fire.

After his release, Elor had submitted an application for a weapons license, but police last week announced the rejection of the application, claiming that Azariya’s past actions and conviction proved that he posed a threat to the public, and denying that his life was in danger - despite the request by MK Nava Boker (Likud) to have the state allow Azariya to carry a weapon over danger to his life.

According to 0404, following media reports that Elor’s application had not been accepted, Charlie had called the Interior Ministry to inquire about the status of the application and was told that a decision had not yet been made. However, hours later, according to the report, it became clear that a decision had, indeed been made, and that the reports had been accurate.

Charlie Azariya expressed outrage that the decision to reject Elor’s application had been leaked to the media even before Elor had received an official response, and vowed to take action.

“I do not intend to give in,” he told 0404. “Police leak to the media before the applicant receives a response. This is very bad, and only proves the conscious efforts to harm us. How can it be that a policeman leaks from the system to the media? I demand that justice be carried out in this matter.”

Following the application rejection, Elor uploaded a Facebook post expressing his feeling that the rejection was another “stab in the back” and a “spit in the face” from the state.

“For 26 months I absorbed a lot of pain, disappointment, and many stabs in the back surrounding them non-stop. Unfortunately, today, I received another one, as well as a spit in the face. I really did not believe that they would say something like that about me after all that I gave and absorbed for the security of the state, it really hurts and is burdensome and tears me inside, and despite this I say again: I have no other country.”

He explained that he had applied for the weapon license after receiving death threats from terror groups.

“As is known to everyone, my family and I have received and still receive constant threats to our lives from terror groups, and we also received a rifle bullet in the mailbox. We complained about this more than once to Israel Police and to the IDF during my time in one of the detention facilities and, ‘amazingly,’ nothing was done. It is important for me to emphasize to all those groups that my family and I will continue living in a normal way despite your threats, and that you don’t scare us.”