UN Urges ’Israel’ to Free Ahed Tamimi

Local Editor

United Nations human-rights investigators called on the Zionist entity to free 17-year-old Ahed Tamimi from jail during her trial for assault and incitement, warning that it had violated her rights under international law.

They also demanded that her trial, which began on Tuesday at the Ofer Military Court, be held in public view, including to the media, rather than behind closed doors.

"The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which "Israel" has ratified, clearly states that children are to be deprived of their liberty only as a last resort, and only for the shortest appropriate period of time," Canadian legal expert Michael Lynk said on Tuesday.

"None of the facts of this case would appear to justify her ongoing detention," Lynk said.

José Guevara, chairman of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, also said her right to access to legal counsel had been violated when she was first arrested and interrogated on December 19.

For the last five years, Ahed, who lives in Nabi Saleh, 20 km. northwest of Ramallah, has been filmed by activists - a strategy that has turned into a symbol of Palestinian resistance.

In those videos, she is shown yelling, raising her fist and at times hitting soldiers during the weekly demonstrations that take place in her village against the IDF.

She was arrested after one such video that showed her slapping two soldiers outside her home and preventing people from entering and existing.

Her trial involves some 12 charges regarding incidents dating back to April 2016. The next hearing is not until March.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team