UN human rights experts have called on Israeli occupation authorities to immediately release the Palestinian youth, Ahmed Manasra, 20, who has been detained in its prisons since he was a child of 13.
This came in a joint statement issued by five UN experts, on Friday, including Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, and Vionwalani Olin, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, as well as Tendai Achium, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia, Tlaling Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right to health, and Reem Al Salem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women.
The statement considered, “The continued detention of this Palestinian young man in light of his deteriorating mental state represents a disgrace to all of us as part of the international human rights community.”
“We still remember those painful scenes of a child with broken bones lying on the ground under a barrage of insults and threats shouted by armed men in a foreign language,” the statement added.
It pointed out that “Ahmed was convicted in 2016 of attempted murder and sentenced to 12 years in prison, although the law at the time the crime was allegedly committed in 2015 does not allow the imprisonment of minors under the age of 14.”
The statement stressed that “the deterioration of the mental state of the child Ahmed was a result of the harsh conditions of his detention, and the repeated cases of solitary confinement and isolation.”
The Early Release Committee in the Israeli Ayalon prison in Ramla had rejected the release of Manasra, who suffers from health deterioration, however, he was charged with terrorism under the Israeli counterterrorism law.
The Manasra family had announced earlier that Ahmed was suffering health deterioration due to his psychological disorders caused by his isolation in solitary confinement, demanding his immediate release.
