 Azaria's attorney Ilan Katz called the trial "unwarranted" stating that soldiers and policemen have shot before at terrorists who seemed to have been neutralized as well, but there was no trial against them.He also criticized former Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon's remarks that Azaria had "sinned".The prosecutor Colonel Nadav Weisman meanwhile stated that Azaria shot Sharif out of revenge with his commanders and a fellow soldiers stating that they heard him say Sharif stabbed his friend and needed to die.