The Israeli Supreme Court decided to hold a new trial session for the prisoner Ahmed Manasra on Monday to consider an appeal submitted against his continued isolation.
His lawyer, Khaled Zabarqa, affirmed that Manasra is scheduled to appear before the court on Monday at 3:30 p.m. to consider the petition submitted by the defense team against his continued solitary confinement.
Last March, the Israeli authorities upheld a 6-month solitary confinement against Manasra.
Manasra was arrested in 2015 in Jerusalem after his 17-year-old cousin was shot dead by the Israeli police. Charged with assisting his cousin in an attempt to stab an Israeli, he was sentenced to 12 years, later lowered to nine.
In an affidavit given to a lawyer of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission after his arrest in October 2015, Manasra said that he was chased down and run over by an Israeli police vehicle.
According to the affidavit, Manasra said that when he tried to escape, he was attacked by Israeli settlers who beat him repeatedly on his head with a club. In a video that went viral at the time, Manasra is shown lying on the ground, bleeding from his head, surrounded by Israelis who hurled insults at him.
Last year, Manasra’s lawyer filed a request for early release based on his psychological condition and the fact that he had served more than two-thirds of the sentence.
The Israeli court transferred the case to a special committee to decide whether to drop “terrorist” charges in his case, given his age at the time of the events and the fact that he was never charged with stabbing.
However, the committee decided to reinstate the “terrorism” charges on Manasra, and his early release was refused. His lawyer said that he and his team are preparing to appeal the decision soon.
