US Federal Judge Orders Immediate Release of Tufts Student Rumeysa Ozturk
Washington (Quds News Network)- A U.S. federal judge on Friday ordered the immediate release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish Ph.D. student at Tufts University, whose video-recorded arrest by masked federal agents sparked outrage amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestine students.
Judge William Sessions III, who presided over her case, ruled that Ozturk had been unlawfully detained in March for little more than authoring an op-ed critical of Israel in her school newspaper.
Ozturk was granted bail in a hearing in federal court in Vermont.
“That literally is the case. There is no evidence here … absent consideration of the op-ed,” the Clinton-appointed judge said, describing it as an apparent violation of her free speech rights.
She was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in the campus newspaper, The Tufts Daily, last year criticizing 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.
Such a beautiful win for Rumeysa Ozturk, snatched off the street and held in an ICE detention center, finally released today.
It should NEVER have happened. pic.twitter.com/391XyfiJxx
— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) May 9, 2025
He also said Ozturk had made significant claims of due process violations. “Her continued detention cannot stand.”
Sessions said the Trump administration’s targeting of Ozturk could chill the speech of “millions and millions” of noncitizens.
“Meanwhile, her detention chills the speech of the millions of people who are not citizens, from fear of being whisked away from their home. For all of those reasons, the court finds her continued detention cannot stand.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio had revoked Ozturk’s visa, saying her continued presence in the United States was contrary to American foreign policy interests, part of a wave of similar visa terminations targeting students who had criticized Israel’s genocide in Gaza or joined pro-Palestinian protests.
The PhD student was in an immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) detention centre in Basile, Louisiana, since she was snatched by plainclothes agents wearing masks on the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts, on 25 March, after her student visa was revoked without her knowledge.
Ozturk, who attended the hearing virtually from the ICE facility in Louisiana, at times appeared emotional during more than three hours of proceedings.
In one of the central arguments, Ozturk said that her asthma had worsened both in frequency and intensity since she had been detained.
She told the court that she had had nine asthma attacks since she had first been diagnosed in 2023, with each attack lasting between five and 15 minutes. She said she had to diligently manage her environment to control her asthma, including monitoring cleaning supplies, exposure to people and pets.
Since she had been detained, however, she had suffered 12 asthma attacks that now could last up to 45 minutes in duration, saying her first one had taken place while she was at the airport waiting to be flown to Louisiana.
“Physical anxiety, hunger, and stress triggered my asthma. I was afraid and I was crying,” she testified.
She said that detention conditions, which included a lack of proper air ventilation, a lack of fresh air, exposure to cleaning products, mice, sharing a cell with 24 people, and stress, had exacerbated her condition.
Judge Sessions concluded by saying: “This is a woman who is totally committed to her academic career. This is probably someone who doesn’t have anything going on apart from reaching out to other members of her community in a caring and compassionate way. There is absolutely no evidence she has participated in violence or advocated violence. She has done nothing else except attend university and expand her contacts within the community in such a supportive way.”
“I do not find any of the contacts she has had in the community create any danger or risk of flight.”
Dozens of protestors appeared outside the Burlington courthouse, waving Palestinian flags and signs of support.
“I Lost Freedom and Education”
The Tufts doctoral student returned to Boston Saturday night.
“In the last 45 days, I lost both my freedom and also my education during a crucial time for my doctoral studies,” she said during a press conference at Logan International Airport in Boston. “But I am so grateful for all the support, kindness and care.”
Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old Turkish doctoral student at Tufts, speaks after a federal judge ordered her release following her arrest by federal agents on the street.
She calls the United States “the greatest democracy in the world” and says she has “faith in the American… pic.twitter.com/abKe8InEtR
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) May 11, 2025
