Judge orders release of Tufts student detained for pro-Palestine writing

The detained Turkish Ph.D. student from Tufts University, Rumeysa Ozturk, was released on Friday after a federal judge ruled the US government lacked sufficient evidence to justify her immigration detention.

Federal agents arrested Ozturk in March on a Massachusetts street, citing a pro-Palestinian opinion piece she co-wrote for a student newspaper. She is now out without bail and will need to appear for court hearings on her case.

Ozturk testified that she experienced several asthma attacks during her detention in the Louisiana facility.

Judge William Sessions III criticized the arrest and said he continued detention “potentially chills the speech of the millions and millions of individuals in this country who are not citizens.”

Ozturk’s release marks the second student freed under the Trump administration’s crackdown on international students linked to pro-Palestinian activism.

Last week, another judge ordered the release of detained Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi.