Mustafa SHETA

Researcher, journalist and theatre manager Mustafa Sheta continued to be arbitrarily detained without trial at Gilbo'a prison in Israel at the end of the year, under an administrative detention order that was repeatedly renewed.

Sheta was arrested from his home on 13 December 2023 after Israeli forces broke into his ‘Freedom Theatre’ during a raid on Jenin refugee camp and destroyed its offices. An Israeli military court ordered his administrative detention for six months without any charges on 31 December 2023 (see Case List 2023/2024). The administrative detention order was extended three times in June, August and November 2024. His family remain unable to visit him in prison nor check on his health. However, his family told PEN International that a lawyer was able to see him and reported that he had lost considerable weight since being imprisoned.

Researcher, journalist and former political prisoner Mustafa Sheta, aged about 44, is producer and general manager of the Freedom Theatre, a theatre and cultural centre in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, founded in 2006, which stages professional theatre productions, holds theatre workshops, acting training, and exhibitions and short films.