Michoel Petrov, a talmid of the Maalos HaTorah yeshivah, was sentenced on Wednesday by the military court to 40 days in prison.

Petrov is the son of HaRav Yosef Petrov, the Rosh Yeshiva of Maalos HaTorah and one of the leaders of Peleg Yerushalmi.

The ruling was issued due to Petrov’s refusal to report to the military induction office and discontinue his yeshivah studies, as well as the fact that he had been classified as a draft evader for five years.

The sentence was harsher than usual because Petrov had been a draft evader for five years. Peleg Yerushalmi denounced the sentence, saying that “he was arrested for the crime of Limmud Torah.”

Peleg Yerushalmi is expected to hold large-scale protests, possibly on Thursday. Protests had originally been planned for this past Monday but were postponed due to missile launches from Iran.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)