The United Nations is demanding that Israel release imprisoned terrorist Ahmad Manasra, who was convicted on two counts of attempted murder in a terrorist attack in the Pisgat Zeev neighborhood of Jerusalem in 2015.
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Manasra, who was 13 when he set out to perpetrate the attack with his 17-year-old cousin, has suffered from mental health problems since he was imprisoned.
On Oct. 12, 2015, in an attack caught on security cameras, Manasra and his cousin, Hassan Khalid Manasra, both residents of Beit Hanina, both took knives and traveled to Pisgat Zeev. At a local candy shop, they encountered a security guard, chased him, and stabbed him. They then stabbed a 13-year-old boy who was riding by on his bicycle.
The boy sustained critical wounds, and since the attack has suffered from mental health problems.
Manasra was originally sentenced to 12 years in prison, which was shortened to nine and a half years after his case was appealed to the Supreme Court. He is due for release in approximately two and a half years.
Recently, the Israel Prisons Service transferred Manasra to a psychiatric hospital after prison authorities suspected he was attempting to harm himself. Manasra's lawyer claims his client is schizophrenic, in a psychotic state, and wants to die.
"Independent human rights experts have urged the Government of Israel to immediately release Ahmad Manasra, a 20-year-old Palestinian detained in Israeli prisons since he was 14 years old, while suffering serious mental health conditions.
"Ahmad's imprisonment for almost six years has deprived him of childhood, family environment, protection, and all the rights he should have been guaranteed as a child," a post on the official Facebook page of the UN's Geneva headquarters states, without mentioning why Manasra is in prison.
"This case is haunting in many respects and his continuous detention, despite his deteriorating mental conditions, is a stain on all of us as part of the international human rights community," the UN Facebook post says.
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