Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev (Likud) congratulated the Azariya family on the return of their son, Elor Azariya, from prison Tuesday morning.

Last year, Elor Azariya, then an IDF sergeant, was convicted of manslaughter for the shooting death Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, an Arab terrorist who had been shot during a terror attack that left one IDF soldier wounded.

Sentenced to 18 months in prison, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot later dropped the sentence to 14 months.

After serving nine months in a military prison, Azariya was released Tuesday morning, following a decision by a probation committee approving his request for an early release.

Minister Regev called Azariya’s parents, Charlie and Oshra Azariya, to congratulate them on their son’s return home.

“Congratulations. I’m so happy and excited for you,” the minister said. “I hope that Elor will get some peace and quiet, and that he’ll now be able to start a new life – a quiet life – after everything that’s happened to him. Also you, his family, who went through so much standing by him all this time, will now get to return to a normal life. I wish you only the best.”

Regev vowed to help the family expunge the January 2017 manslaughter conviction from Elor’s criminal record.

“After he gets settled, we’ll start working on erasing his criminal record, so that it won’t cause him problems later on.”