Mustafa SHETA

Researcher, journalist and theatre manager Mustafa Sheta was released on 30 March 2025, following more than 15 months in arbitrary detention without charge or trial. Sheta was arrested from his home on 13 December 2023 after Israeli forces broke into the Freedom Theatre during a raid on the refugee camp and destroyed its offices. An Israeli military court ordered his administrative detention for six months without any charges on 31 December 2023; the order was renewed several times until his release (see Case List 2023/2024-2025).  

Sheta told PEN International that he was held in poor conditions in Gilbo’a prison. He was denied contact with the outside world and detained in inhumane conditions, with limited access to food, medicines and clothing. He was assaulted by prison guards on several occasions, including in January 2025, when prison guards stormed his cell, assaulted him and his cellmates, and forced them out to the prison yard to sleep on their stomachs with their hands behind their backs while it was raining. He also faced constant threats, intimidation and humiliating measures throughout his detention, including prison officers forcing an inmate to shave his hair.. 

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