Rights group appeals Israel’s rejection of Ahmad Manasra’s early release

The Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah) and attorney Khaled Zabarqa yesterday filed a motion to Israel’s Supreme Court to appeal against the lower court’s rejection of Ahmad Manasra’s early release.

Manasra, a resident of occupied East Jerusalem, was arrested by the Israeli occupation forces in 2015, when he was 13 years old. He was accused of attempted murder for being with his cousin Hassan Manasra, who were accused of stabbing two Israelis in the illegal Pisgat Ze’ev settlement in the occupied West Bank.

His cousin was shot dead at the scene, whereas Ahmad was hit by a car and sustained serious head injuries while an Israeli crowd jeered at him.

On 1 September 2022, Israel’s Be’er Sheva District Court rejected an appeal to remove the “terrorism” classification under which Palestinian prisoner Ahmad Manasra is being held, in spite of the fact that he was detained at the age of 13 in a brutal manner, violently interrogated without an adult or lawyer present and then held in jail even though he did not carry out a crime. Manasra’s classification as a detainee held for “terrorism” means his defence team cannot apply for early release now that he has completed two-thirds of his term, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.

The motion, Adalah said, was filed in light of Manasra’s deteriorating medical and mental health, noting that Adalah attorneys Nareman Shehadeh-Zoabi and Adi Mansour filed the appeal in cooperation with Zabarqa.

READ: ‘I am dreaming of the moment I hug him,’ says Ahmed Al-Manasra´s mother