State faces conundrum in prosecution of teen terrorist
At 13, stabber Ahmed Manasra is too young to be prosecuted as adult; justice minister weighs change to law, though it wouldn’t apply retroactively
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked is seeking to promote legislation to allow the state to prosecute and imprison terror suspects under the age of 14, Channel 10 reported Friday.
Meanwhile state prosecutors are weighing the possibility of requesting the confinement of a 13-year-old Palestinian terrorist to a closed care facility until he is 14 and able to face trial, as he is currently too young to be put in prison.
Ahmed Manasra, a terrorist who made world headlines this week after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas claimed he had been executed by Israel — a claim Abbas walked back after Israel released pictures of the boy recovering in an Israeli hospital — is not yet old enough to serve time in jail.
Manasra and his 15-year-old cousin, Hassan, were filmed stabbing a 25-year-old man in Pisgat Zeev, a neighborhood located in northeastern Jerusalem, causing the man serious injuries, before stabbing a second victim, a 13-year-old Jewish boy, in the neck. The victim was hospitalized in life-threatening condition, and has since stabilized.
Hassan was killed by police, while Ahmed was hit by a car and injured as he fled, and arrested.
While Israeli law defines minors as people under 18 years of age, for the purpose of prosecution on capital crimes the age at which they are tried as adults is 14.
If he is found guilty of attempted murder before reaching the minimum age of 14, the judge will not be able to sentence him to prison, according to Israeli law. He can intern him in a youth facility, but only until age 20.
Shaked is seeking to advance a bill that would make it possible to imprison youths under 14 in the case of terrorism charges. However, such a bill, even if it is passed at some point down the road, is unlikely to affect Manasra’s case retroactively.
