12-year sentence sought for Palestinian, 14, who stabbed two

A prosecutor is calling for a 12-year jail term to be handed down to a Palestinian minor for stabbing an Israeli child in October 2015, his lawyer says.

Ahmed Manasra, a 14-year-old Palestinian, was convicted in May this year of the attempted murder of two Israelis in a knife attack last October.

He was 13 when he carried out the attack with his 15-year-old cousin Hassan Manasra.

The two stabbed and seriously wounded a 20-year-old and a 12-year-old boy in the Jewish neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev in East Jerusalem.

Hassan Manasra was shot dead by security forces, while Ahmed Manasra was hit by a car as they fled.

Manasra’s lawyer Lea Tzemel says after a hearing behind closed doors that her client had apologized “to the child he stabbed, who was present in court.”

After his conviction in May, she said Manasra “said he just wanted to scare Jews so they’d stop killing Palestinians”.

“The prosecution is demanding a 12-year prison sentence,” she says.

“We have requested a procedure of reintegration, given that he is a minor and minors have more rights when it comes to reintegration into society,” Tzemel adds.

— AFP