Latest news with #Manasra
Egypt Independent
15-04-2025
- Egypt Independent
Israel releases Palestinian prisoner controversially arrested aged 13
CNN — Israel has released a Palestinian man who was controversially arrested at the age of 13, after he spent nearly a decade in jail. Ahmad Manasra has been reunited with his family, his lawyer Khaled Zabarqa told CNN. 'Ahmad has completed his 10-year sentence and he is a free person now,' Zabarqa said. 'The Israeli authorities have imposed restriction on the family as far as holding a welcome ceremony for Ahmad or talking to the media. ' Ahmad Manasra was arrested and imprisoned in 2015 after being caught with his cousin Hassan who stabbed two Israelis in East Jerusalem. Hassan was shot dead at the scene while Manasra was run over by a car. Manasra's case gained international attention after a video emerged of crowds shouting abuse at him after the incident while he lies motionless, seriously injured and crying out. Other footage allegedly shows Israeli officials interrogating Manasra under duress as he is visibly shaken and vulnerable, according to the Palestinian Prisoner's Society. He was sentenced to 12 years for attempted murder in 2016, despite Israeli courts' recognizing he had not been involved in the stabbings, the Palestinian Prisoner's Society added. His sentence was revised down to nine and a half years following an appeal in 2017 International groups have repeatedly called on Israeli authorities for his release over the years over concerns of his treatment and extended stays in solitary confinement, coupled with mental health issues and a schizophrenia diagnosis. 'His physical and medical condition is very difficult as he suffers from head injuries and physiological mental health as he was in solitary confinement and was subjected to harsh interrogation when he was a child,' his lawyer said. Israel's prison authorities confirmed Manasra was being released on Thursday, adding 'Israel is a state of law, we don't torture people here.'
Khaleej Times
12-04-2025
- Khaleej Times
Watch: Palestinian jailed as teen for stabbing Israelis freed after 9 years
A Palestinian sentenced as a teen for taking part in a knife attack against two Israelis was freed Thursday after spending more than nine years in jail, a lawyer said. Ahmad Manasra, now 23, was just 13 when he carried out the attack in October 2015 in Israeli-occupied and annexed east Jerusalem. "He was released today," said Nareman Shehadeh Zoabi, an attorney for rights group Adalah and part of a legal team representing him. "His family met him and now the family is taking the time with him and to be able to stay quiet for some time alone with Ahmed," she told AFP. Manasra was originally sentenced in 2016 to 12 years in prison, but his term was later reduced to nine and a half years by Israel's supreme court. AFPTV footage on Thursday showed Manasra, wearing a surgical mask and with his hair closely cropped, at an Israeli security facility in Jerusalem alongside his father. Watch the video below: He was found guilty of the attempted murder of a 20-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy in the Jewish settlement neighbourhood of Pisgat Zeev in east Jerusalem, his lawyer said at the time. He carried out the attack with his cousin Hassan, who was shot dead by security forces on the spot. Between Manasra's conviction and sentencing, Israeli law was amended to allow civilian courts to convict children as young as 12 for "terrorist offences". Manasra, an east Jerusalem resident, was the youngest Palestinian to be convicted by an Israeli civilian court at the time. Zoabi, the lawyer at Adalah legal centre, said her team had worked to secure Manasra's early release in 2022 but failed to secure it. Among other things, his health had declined drastically after he spent nearly two years in solitary confinement. Rights group Amnesty International had also raised concerns at the time, warning of his deteriorating psychological condition. "Ahmad Manasra's release today is a huge relief for him and for his family, but nothing can undo the years of injustice, abuse, trauma and ill-treatment he endured behind bars," Amnesty regional director Heba Morayef said in a statement on Thursday. Manasra initially pleaded not guilty, saying he had intended to frighten the Israelis, not kill them. The stabbing incident came at the beginning of a months-long wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks.
The National
11-04-2025
- The National
Israel releases Ahmad Manasra, arrested at 13, after nearly a decade in prison
Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza Israel on Thursday released Palestinian Ahmad Manasra, who was detained at the age of 13 for taking part in a stabbing attack in East Jerusalem and held in isolation for long periods during nearly 10 years in prison. His family waited for him outside Nafha Prison, but were then told he had been released in Beersheba, about 50km away, the Wafa news agency reported. Mr Manasra was arrested and convicted of attempted murder after he and his cousin Hassan, 15, entered East Jerusalem carrying knives in 2015. Hassan stabbed an Israeli man and wounded a 13-year-old Israeli boy before he was shot dead by police. A video of the incident widely shared online showed Mr Manasra, who was run over by a car, bleeding on the ground as Israeli soldiers pinned him down. He was initially sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined 180,000 shekels ($47,900) as it was classified a "terrorism case" by the Israeli Supreme Court. But the sentence was reduced to nine-and-a-half years in 2017. In 2022, his mother was able to see him at close enough quarters to touch him through an opening in the solitary confinement cell he was kept in. "For the first time in seven years, I am touching my son," she said in a video posted on social media. After several years in prison, Mr Manasra was diagnosed with psychological conditions including schizophrenia, psychosis and severe depression. His lawyer, Khaled Zabarqa, said he did not have immediate information about Mr Manasra's condition after his release, but added that he was with his parents. 'We know in jail he's been very ill. We're waiting to know his health situation now,' he said.
Saudi Gazette
11-04-2025
- Saudi Gazette
Israel releases Palestinian prisoner controversially arrested aged 13
JERUSALEM — Israel has released a Palestinian man who was controversially arrested at the age of 13, after he spent nearly a decade in jail. Ahmad Manasra has been reunited with his family, his lawyer Khaled Zabarqa told CNN. 'Ahmad has completed his 10-year sentence and he is a free person now,' Zabarqa said. 'The Israeli authorities have imposed restriction on the family as far as holding a welcome ceremony for Ahmad or talking to the media. ' Ahmad Manasra was arrested and imprisoned in 2015 after being caught with his cousin Hassan who stabbed two Israelis in East Jerusalem. Hassan was shot dead at the scene while Manasra was run over by a car. Manasra's case gained international attention after a video emerged of crowds shouting abuse at him after the incident while he lies motionless, seriously injured and crying out. Other footage allegedly shows Israeli officials interrogating Manasra under duress as he is visibly shaken and vulnerable, according to the Palestinian Prisoner's Society. He was sentenced to 12 years for attempted murder in 2016, despite Israeli courts' recognizing he had not been involved in the stabbings, the Palestinian Prisoner's Society added. His sentence was revised down to nine and a half years following an appeal in 2017 International groups have repeatedly called on Israeli authorities for his release over the years over concerns of his treatment and extended stays in solitary confinement, coupled with mental health issues and a schizophrenia diagnosis. 'His physical and medical condition is very difficult as he suffers from head injuries and physiological mental health as he was in solitary confinement and was subjected to harsh interrogation when he was a child,' his lawyer said. Israel's prison authorities confirmed Manasra was being released on Thursday, adding 'Israel is a state of law, we don't torture people here.' — CNN
Nahar Net
10-04-2025
- Nahar Net
Israel releases Ahmad Manasra after 9 years in prison
by Naharnet Newsdesk 6 hours Israel on Thursday released a Palestinian who took part in an attack when he was 13 and developed schizophrenia in prison as requests for early release were denied. Israel says Ahmad Manasra is a terrorist who tried to kill Jews his own age. Palestinians accuse Israel of subjecting a child to harsh incarceration that led to serious and potentially permanent mental illness. His lawyer, Khaled Zabarqa, said he was released after completing his nine-and-a-half-year sentence. In 2015, Manasra, then 13, and his 15-year-old cousin rampaged through a Jewish settlement in east Jerusalem with knives. His cousin, Hassan, critically wounded a 13-year-old Israeli boy who was leaving a candy store and stabbed an Israeli man before being shot dead by police. Ahmad was run over by a car, beaten and taunted by Israeli passers-by. A graphic video of Ahmad lying in the street, bleeding from the head while Israelis taunted him, garnered millions of views. He was later convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. Doctors said he developed schizophrenia in solitary confinement and tried to harm himself and others. Appeals to Israel's Supreme Court for his early release were repeatedly denied. The courts ruled that he was ineligible, regardless of age or mental condition, because he was convicted of terrorism. Zarbarqa said he did not have immediate information about Manasra's condition after his release, but said he was with his parents. "We know in jail he's been very ill. We're waiting to know his health situation now," Zabarqa said. Authorities first moved Manasra to isolation in November 2021, following a scuffle with another inmate. In interviews the following year, his family and lawyers said he was locked in a small cell for 23 hours a day and suffered from paranoia and delusions that kept him from sleeping. His lawyer said Manasra had tried to slit his wrists. His family said he was transferred to the psychiatric wing of another prison every few months, where doctors gave him injections to stabilize him. A physician who was allowed to visit him when he was 18 diagnosed him with schizophrenia and attributed it to the toll of being in prison, warning that continued incarceration could lead to permanent disability. The Prisons Authority on Thursday declined to comment on the specific conditions under which he had been held, saying all prisoners are held in accordance with Israeli and international law and that any allegations of abuse are investigated. Rights groups say conditions inside Israeli prisons have become far more harsh since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian prisoners released during a recent ceasefire often appeared gaunt and ill, and many went straight to local hospitals for treatment. The Israeli ministry in charge of prisons has boasted that it has reduced the conditions of security prisoners to the bare minimum required by Israeli law. A teenager from the occupied West Bank who was held in an Israeli prison for six months without being charged died last month after collapsing in unclear circumstances, becoming the first Palestinian under 18 to die in Israeli detention.
