Hawzah News Agency- A federal judge on Friday ordered Ozturk’s release pending a final decision on his claim that he was unlawfully detained after publishing an article he wrote last year criticizing his university’s response to Israel’s war on the people of Gaza.
Öztürk said she will continue her case in the courts, adding, “In the last 45 days, I lost both my freedom and also my education during a crucial time for my doctoral studies''.
“Today is a tremendous day as we welcome you back, Rumeysa'', Ed Markey, a Democrat senator from Massachusetts said. “You have made millions and millions of people across our country so proud of the way you have fought''.
Appearing by video for her bail hearing the previous day, Öztürk, 30, detailed her growing asthma attacks in detention and her desire to finish her doctorate focusing on children and social media.
Judge Sessions said the government offered no evidence for why Öztürk was arrested other than the op-ed.
Öztürk was one of four students who wrote the opinion piece last year in campus newspaper The Tufts Daily. It criticized the university’s response to student activists demanding that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide'', disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel.
On 25 March immigration officials surrounded Öztürk in Massachusetts and took her into custody. She was then driven to New Hampshire and Vermont and flown to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana.
Her student visa had been revoked several days earlier, but she was not informed of that, her lawyers said.
Öztürk’s lawyers first filed a petition on her behalf in Massachusetts, but they did not know where she was and were unable to speak to her until more than 24 hours after she was detained. A Massachusetts judge later transferred the case to Vermont.
Öztürk is one of several international students detained by the Trump administration over their pro-Palestinian advocacy on campus.
Source: The Guardian
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