(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Judge demands ICE release Tufts student who says she was targeted for pro-Palestine op-ed [1]
['Josh Russell']
Date: 2025-05
A federal judge in Vermont ordered the immediate release of Rumeysa Ozturk on Friday, six weeks after she was detained over what she claims is retaliation for supporting Palestine.
BURLINGTON (CN) — Finding “very substantial First Amendment claims,” a Vermont federal judge on Friday ordered Turkish Tufts University doctoral candidate Rumeysa Ozturk to be released from ICE custody after six weeks of detention.
Ozturk, 30, was arrested on March 25 by six plainclothes federal agents wearing masks near her home in Somerville, Massachusetts. She claims that her arrest was in retaliation to an article she co-authored in student paper The Tufts Daily, in which she criticized the university’s response to pro-Palestine protests on campus.
"There is no evidence here as to the motivation, absent the consideration of the op-ed,” U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III read at the conclusion of a three-hour bail hearing in Burlington federal court.
“Her continued detention cannot stand,” the Bill Clinton appointee said. “Bail is necessary to make the habeas remedy effective.”
Ordering her to be immediately released on her own recognizance, the judge found Ozturk does not pose a danger to the community or risk of flight.
“There is absolutely no evidence that she has engaged in violence, or advocated violence, she has no criminal record,” he said. "She has done nothing other than, essentially, attend her university and expand her contacts in her community in such a supportive way.”
Currently detained at an immigration facility in Basile, Louisiana, Ozturk appeared at the bail hearing on Friday morning remotely by video, wearing an orange jail uniform with a brown hijab head scarf, accompanied by attorney Mahsa Khanbabai.
Khanbabai said Friday she is “relieved and ecstatic” that her client has been ordered released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, but castigated the government for the lengthy detention already imposed.
“Unfortunately, it is 45 days too late. She has been imprisoned all these days for simply writing an op-ed that called for human rights and dignity for the people in Palestine,” the attorney said in a statement. “When did speaking up against oppression become a crime? When did speaking up against genocide become something to be imprisoned for?”
Shortly after her arrest, Ozturk quickly filed a habeas corpus petition challenging her detention in Massachusetts — Ozturk’s last known location — despite the fact that she had already been moved to Vermont and then Louisiana.
The federal court in Massachusetts found it lacked standing and transferred the case to Vermont. But the government ascertained that Ozturk needs to file an entirely new petition in Louisiana, where she is currently held.
On Wednesday, the Second Circuit federal appeals court in New York ordered the Trump administration to physically return Ozturk to ICE custody within the District of Vermont no later than May 14, 2025.
During her bail hearing on Friday, Ozturk described her worsening severity, duration and frequency of asthmas attacks since she has been detained. She had to be briefly excused from the bail hearing because she experienced a minor asthma attack while Dr. Jessica McCannon was addressing her medical conditions.
She testified that her housing unit has a posted maximum capacity of 14 people, but currently holds 24 women.
Ozturk’s release on bail will be supervised Becky Penberthy, from the Burlington Community Justice Center.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-demands-ice-release-tufts-student-who-says-she-was-targeted-for-pro-palestine-op-ed/
Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/
