Translated by Saed Bannoura
Akram Mansour, 44 years old, from Qalqilia, north of the West Bank has been detained since 1979. He is considered one of the oldest detainees among 500 other detainees from Qalqilia, detained in several military detention camps.
Mansour was arrested as he was accused of killing a settlement bus driver, while he was returning from his work inside Israel, he was accused of killing the driver using a knife and abducting the weapon of the driver near Qalqilia.
Nasser Mansour, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society, Qalqilia branch, told Palestinenet that only one year ago, the lawyer of Akram managed to make the court specify the real period of imprisonment which was finally set for 35 years.
Akram, who is now detained at Bir Shiva Central Detention, spent 25 years in detention, he spent these years without knowing when he will ever be out, or even how long is his sentence.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, Mansour is considered the oldest detainee in Qalqilia.
Akram was transferred to all detention camps, “through the years presidents changed, ever iron walls changed, but he stayed there, rock solid, with a will which is stronger than the Iron Bar and concrete wall’, a relative of Mansour said.
He had seen several detainees, lots of them are married now, even their children grew up and got married, while Mansour is still detained, half a century passed now, yet he is still detained for a period which is still way ahead.
The mother of Mansour died after long fight with a disease, his father died too, they couldn’t see him for a long period, now they are both dead.
His brothers and sisters got married; he was never able to share them their joys and happiness which lacked his presence among them.
The family, deprived of Mansour, for long years passed, yet long years to come, lives with a hope, that one day he will be free, and be among them once again after so many years…long and hard enough
Akram is still in detained, he suffers from ulcer, and several problems in his ears as a result of torture he went through during interrogation in 1979.
Yet, he was placed in solitary several times, for different reasons and claims, one of these times; he was placed in solitary for more than a year in the mid nineties.
The family, lately was banned from visiting him, and recently he wasn’t even allowed to phone them, all sort of communication are lost, yet the hearts and minds cannot be banned, which became lately the only sort of “communicationâ€Â.
Akram, detained since 1979, with several health problems, remains in detention, as well as hundreds of other detainees, hoping and waiting for the day of freedom, the day of the long waited unity with their families, a unity which the occupation continuously tried to ban and even forbid.
Yet the dream remains, and the will never surrender…
