Trials of Palestinian girl Manar Shweiki and student Salam Abu Sharar delayed until September

manar-shweiki

The trial of imprisoned Palestinian girl, Manar Shweiki, 15, was continued until 7 September by the Jerusalem magistrate’s court on Wednesday, 13 July.

Manar is accused of possessing a knife in order to carry out a resistance action; however, the knife was allegedly found inside her bag after she was arrested by occupation forces after leaving her school in the Wadi Hilweh neighbourhood of Silwan on 6 December 2015. She was taken to a military base. Her father, Majdi Shweiki, told Asra Media that the arrest was an action of revenge by occupation forces; Manar was detained and released twice, and threatened by interrogators that she would be arrested again. Shweiki also said that an intelligence officer told Manar’s mother that she will “not get away this time” with avoiding prison. Further, Shweiki said, her parents were not informed originally of her detention and she was not allowed a lawyer. He has been denied the right to visit her as a former prisoner.

Manar is among 61 Palestinian women and girls, including 12 minor girls, currently imprisoned by the Israeli occupation.

salamabushararSalam Abu Sharar, 22, from al-Khalil, a student at Al-Quds University in Al-Khalil remains imprisoned after her trial on allegations of participation in student activities was continued until September 2016 by the Israeli Ofer Military court. She was arrested with her fellow students, Hala Bitar – sentenced to four months’ imprisonment for participating in student activities earlier this week – and Nour al-Islam Darwish on 19 April, the day of student elections at the university. The arrests came in the context of an ongoing campaign of arrests and persecution against Palestinian student politics.