Ahmad Manasra, 14, is led from an Israeli court after being sentenced to 12 years in prison, in Jerusalem on 7 November. Ammar Awad Reuters
By Charlotte Silver, Electronic Intifada
Ahmad Manasra, 14, is led from an Israeli court after being sentenced to 12 years in prison, in Jerusalem on 7 November. Ammar Awad Reuters
By Charlotte Silver, Electronic Intifada
Over a year after he was first arrested, 14-year-old Ahmad Manasra was sentenced to 12 years in prison by an Israeli court on Monday.
Israeli prosecutors are believed to have waited until Ahmad turned 14 to file an indictment against him in order to maximize his punishment.
Ahmad was 13 when he was first arrested, and at the time Israeli law prohibited the imprisonment of children below the age of 14.
“The occupation deliberately kept the child Ahmad Manasra imprisoned inside a reform center until he reached the legal age for full sentencing under Israeli law,” said lawyer Jamil Saadeh.
“The court did not take into account what he suffered from the moment of his detention, being wounded, assaulted and cursed, treated inside the hospital as a threat and screamed at during interrogation by the officers, all of which is documented on video and condemns the occupation,” Saadeh added.
Ahmad was convicted in May on two counts of attempted murder for allegedly helping his 15-year-old cousin attack a teenager and a man in an Israeli settlement in occupied East Jerusalem in October 2015.
Ahmad’s cousin, Hasan, was immediately shot to death by Israeli police. Ahmad was run over by a car and critically injured.
An Israeli bystander recorded a video of people crowding around Ahmad shouting obscenities in Hebrew at the injured child.
A month after Ahmad’s arrest, a video showing his brutal interrogation was leaked to media.
Ahmad’s case prompted the Israeli justice ministry to propose legislation allowing jail time for children as young as 12 in so-called “terrorism” cases.
The Israeli parliament passed the bill in August.
