United Nations human rights experts have urged Israel to release Ahmad Manasra, a 20-year-old Palestinian who was imprisoned at the age of 14 and is currently suffering from serious mental health problems, citing his deteriorating mental health.
“Ahmad’s imprisonment for almost six years has deprived him of childhood, family environment, protection, and all the rights he should have been guaranteed as a child,” the experts said in a statement.
“This case is haunting in many respects and his continuous detention, despite his deteriorating mental conditions, is a stain on all of us as part of the international human rights community.”
The experts appealed to Israeli authorities to free Manasra and allow him to go back to his family and get psychological counseling and support.
The statement said it was time for the “pervasive system of arrest and detention” conducted by Israel in the “occupied Palestinian territory” to receive international attention.
In April, the Israeli judiciary dropped the “terrorism” charges against Manasra amid growing calls for his release.
Manasra was arrested by Israeli forces in 2015 when he was 13 years old for his alleged involvement in a knife attack carried out by his 15-year-old cousin, Hasan Manasra, in an East Jerusalem neighborhood. Hasan Manasra was shot dead by Israeli police, while Ahmad Manasra was seriously injured by an Israeli mob and run over by an Israeli driver, fracturing his skull and causing internal bleeding.
Ahmad Manasra was initially sentenced to 12 years in prison, later reduced to nine years, for being with his cousin, who allegedly stabbed two Israeli settlers near the illegal settlement of Pisgat Zeev in occupied East Jerusalem, after completing his treatment in the hospital. Despite not participating in the attack, which the courts acknowledged, Ahmad Manasra was charged with attempted murder.