Elor Azariya in court surrounded b family
Elor Azariya in court surrounded b familyFlash90

Thursday morning, Elor Azariya and his family were surprised to read in news outlets that an appeal of the decision to turn down his request for a personal firearm was rejected by the Firearm Licensing Division.

Azariya was released earlier this year after serving nine months in an army prison for the shooting death of a wounded terrorist shortly after a stabbing attack in Hevron in March 2016.

The former soldier and his family were shocked to hear of the decision through the media, when they had not yet received an official answer themselves.

The lawyer representing the family in this case, Attorney Adi Keidar of the Honenu organization said they have yet to get an official response.

The family called the Weapons Licensing Division after they saw the public report. They were told that no decision has been made yet, negative or positive.

As a result, Charlie Azariya, Elor's father, filed a complaint with the Department for the Investigation of Police. In addition, Attorney Keidar sent a request to the Minister of Public Security, Gilad Erdan to open an investigation to the claim.

The lawyer stated, "IDF combat soldier (res.) Elor Azariya filed an appeal against the rejection of his request for a weapons license. In the appeal, we explained the actual risk to Elor's life in the wake of threats against him and other reasons, that in our opinion, justify allowing my client to hold a personal firearms license.

"Elor and his family, as well as the undersigned's office, received no response to the appeal. In addition, a conversation held by Elor today, November 18, 2018 about 11:00 a.m., was informed by the manager of the firearms licensing center, that they had not received a response to the appeal - neither positive not negative.

"In spite of everything, we were amazed this morning to see and hear that starting at 9:00 a.m., the media reported that the submitted appeal was denied."

Later on, Keidar criticized the police for leaking to the decision to the media. "In there tumultuous days when the police are busy with public relations and polygraph tests, the police continue to conduct themselves in exactly the same way and leak false reports to the media. In these circumstances, I will as you to hold an urgent examination of who it was that leaked my client's activity to the media," Keidar demanded from the Ministry of Public Security.

Keidar requested that all those responsible be given a polygraph test. "We will note that this is not the first time that the Israel Police allegedly leaked personal information in Azariya's case. The Department for the Investigation of Police is currently conducting an investigation into a similar case."