Military prosecutors on Wednesday pressed home their case against Elor Azariya, the IDF soldier who shot dead a wounded terrorist in Hevron on March 24.
Lead Military Prosecutor Lt. (res.) Nadav Weissman, claimed Azariya executed the terrorist in cold blood, shooting him while he posed no threat at all - contrary to the soldier's testimony.
Weissman testified how Azariya had sent a text message to his father just a minute and a half after firing the fatal shot, saying "there was an attack, my friend was injured. The friend killed the first (terrorist), I killed the second one."
"We will demonstrate to the court the behavior of the accused, how he took off his helmet, stood steadily and opened fire, without being under any threat," the prosecutor said in his opening remarks.
"The accused's actions were carried out calmly, dispassionately," he added, contradicting the defendant's claim that he acted in a split second of emotion.
"Even after the shooting he stayed calm," he continued, while expressing confidence that under prosecutors' grilling Azariya would not be able to demonstrate he had at any point sensed a danger to his life or to others.
Weissman showed the court a portion of the video from the incident, which he said proved Azariya's claim he thought the terrorist was reaching for his knife is "a lie." The video showed the knife lying a considerable distance from the prone terrorist's hand.