The family of Jerusalemite prisoner Ahmed Manasra 21 has appealed to international human rights groups to intervene to save its son from solitary confinement and to work on his release before his psychological health deteriorates further.
In press remarks on Thursday his mother Maysoun said that Manasra’s mental health condition worsened as a result of his detention in an isolation cell in Ashkelon jail for a long time adding that he is not allowed to see or talk to anyone in the jail.
The mother called for necessarily pressuring the Israeli occupation authority to end the isolation of her son expressing hope to hug him.
International bodies including the European Union and the UN have already called for the immediate release of Manasra who was detained at the age of 14.
In December 2021 an external doctor was allowed to visit Manasra for the first time since his imprisonment. The doctor a psychiatrist from Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF) issued a medical report which has since been attached to his case file stating that Manasra suffers from schizophrenia.
Lawyers and doctors have also said Manasra was exposed to “abuse multiple physical psychological and social torture including deprivation from family connectivity visits and communication with his parents.”
Manasra was initially sentenced to 12 years in prison — which was later reduced to nine years — for being with his cousin Hasan Manasra who allegedly stabbed two Jewish settlers near the illegal settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev in East Jerusalem in 2015.
Hasan who was 15 at the time was shot dead by an armed settler while Ahmad suffered fractures to his skull and internal bleeding after he was severely beaten by an Israeli mob and run over by an Israeli vehicle at the scene.
