An Israeli Court has extended the solitary confinement of 20-year-old Palestinian detainee Ahmad Manasra despite his serious mental and physical condition.
On Thursday, the Be’er Sheva District Court extended the solitary confinement of 20-year-old Ahmad Manasra by an additional four months, on the basis of “secret evidence.”
Ahmad has already been held in solitary confinement for over a year, since November 2021.
Manasra, a resident of the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem, began serving a nine-and-a-half-year prison sentence as a minor, at the age of 14, after the Israeli court falsely convicted him of carrying out an alleged attack in the illegal settlement of Psgat Zeev in occupied Jerusalem, in an incident that took place when he was 13 years old.
During his time in prison, Manasra’s mental health severely deteriorated and he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. According to doctors, Manasra’s condition requires immediate specialist medical attention outside prison.
A month after Ahmad Manasra’s arrest in November 2015, footage of his interrogation was made public. The 10-minute video shows Ahmad being interrogated by three Israeli officers, without the presence of his lawyer or parent in violation of international standards, sparking outrage from human rights groups. He appears increasingly distressed as his interrogators continue to shout at him, directing insults and threats.
The court accepted in full the State’s contentions that Manasra poses a threat to himself and to others, which it based on secret intelligence information, citing the State attorney’s office, which argued that, “The isolation is necessary both to ensure the safety of the respondent himself [Manasra], and to ensure that others are safe from the respondent (…) and that isolation is necessary to maintain order and discipline in the prison.”
The court ruled that it was “satisfied that the [Israel Prison Service] is providing suitable medical care, given [Ahmad’s] psychiatric condition”.
The court “disregarded the severity of Manasra’s mental health condition and an assessment made by an independent psychiatrist that the isolation would lead to further deterioration in his mental health and that he needed urgent and immediate medical attention outside the prison,” said Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.
Manasra’s legal team consists of Adalah Attorneys Nareman Shehadeh-Zoabi and Adi Mansour, and private Attorney Khaled Zabarqa.
The legal team argued that the conditions to which Manasra is subjected amount to torture and ill-treatment, and stand in violation of international human rights law, and demanded his immediate release from solitary confinement.
On 24 October 2022, the legal team filed a request for a new independent psychiatric evaluation of Manasra’s current mental health condition. As a result, an independent psychiatrist will examine Manasra on Sunday, 27 November 2022, and the team will consider further legal action to end Manasra’s solitary confinement based on said examination.
In response to the court’s decision, Adalah commented that, “The Israeli judiciary systematically uses secret evidence to justify decisions that violate the human rights of Palestinians in all areas under Israeli control. We will continue to fight for Ahmad to receive the treatment he needs.”
In a video footage circulated on social media by activists, Manasra’s mother has called for the urgent release of her son, saying “freedom is the only way to heal him.”
“I urge people of conscience to stand in solidarity with my son. He has been held in a cell. He has not seen the sun,” she said.
