Turkish Tufts University Student Rumeysa Ozturk to be released on bail

A federal judge has ordered the release of a Turkish student at Tufts University that is held in Louisiana after American immigration officials have arrested her in Massachusetts.

Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, testified almost during a hearing on Friday, where the American district judge William Sessions said that the student met all the conditions needed for release and the government’s case against her, according to BBC News Partner CBS.

“Her continuous detention kilt the speech of millions in this country that are not citizens,” the judge said.

Mrs. Otzurk was a co-author of an opinion piece in her campus newspaper that was critical about Israel’s war. Her arrest follows the performance of the White House about what it has classified as anti -Semitism on American campuses.

The US Department of Interior Security had accused Mrs. Ozturk of “Engag (ING) in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that enjoys the murder of Americans”. The government did not call witnesses during the hearing.

After the judge’s ruling, a spokesperson for DHS replied: “Visa provided to foreign students to live and study in the United States are not a privilege. The Trump government is dedicated to restoring the constitutional state and common sense for our immigration system and will continue to fight for the arrest, detention and removal of those who have no rights in the country.”

Videos of the arrest of Mrs. Ozturk in March, with masked officers of ordinary clothing who took her buoys and her in an unmarked car after a Ramadan celebration, led to national protests.

Earlier this week, the judge ordered Mrs Ozturk to be transferred to the immigration authorities in Vermont before 14 May, where she was last held before she was brought to Louisiana.

The judge said on Friday that she had to be released immediately without travel restrictions, so that she can go to Vermont or Massachusetts, where Tufts is located if necessary.

He heard of a number of witnesses in the case, including Mrs. Ozturk, her doctor and professor at Tufts University.

During her testimony, Mrs. Ozturk told the court about her fulbright grant and her promotional work. She said that her asthma state had deteriorated while determining and at one point had to take a short break after an asthma attack on the camera.

After hearing witnesses for the defense, Judge Sessions said that Mrs. Ozturk had called “very substantial” claims that her first amendment and appropriate procedural rights were violated. He said that the only proof that the administration had against Mrs. Ozturk was her up.

“That is literally the case,” he said, according to judicial reporters. “There is no evidence that she is concerned with violence or arguing for violence.”

In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union, who represents Mrs. Ozturk, said that they were “delighted” by her release.

“Rümeysa can now return to her beloved Tufts community, resume her studies and start teaching again,” said Noor Zafar, a senior staff lawyer at the ACLU. “The prevailing reigning underlines an essential first amendment principle: no one may be imprisoned by the government for expressing their beliefs.”

Judge Sessions told the court that the government should inform him when Mrs. Ozturk was freed and said that he would deny all the motions to block her release.

The Trump government has held several international students – some legal inhabitants – who have organized themselves to support Palestine.

Last week a judge ordered the government to release the Columbia University Student Mohsen Mahdawi after immigration officials held him during a naturalization interview.

The 34-year-old permanent resident was raised in a refugee camp on the West Bank and was held on a facility in Vermont.

One of the highest profile shops so far has graduated from Columbia, Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent pro-Palestinian activist, who remains in a detention facility in Louisiana without indictment.