Senator Urges Release of Detained Turkish Student Following Court Ruling

2025-05-08 01:56:36

(MENAFN) U.S. Senator Ed Markey has intensified his call for the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student, following a court order that dictates her transfer to Vermont. Markey, speaking via a video message on X, stated, "This is an important moment. It is a step in the right direction," but emphasized that further action is necessary.

Ozturk, a Tufts University doctoral candidate, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on March 25 in Massachusetts, stemming from her co-authorship of an op-ed addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in her school's newspaper. Markey stated, "She deserves to be free. But we can't stop here. We must keep speaking out against authoritarianism. That is what the Trump administration is all about."

He further noted, "We must ultimately see the release of Rumeysa."

After her arrest, Ozturk was moved across several states before being transported to Louisiana. A federal judge in Massachusetts subsequently ruled that her case should be handled in Vermont, not Louisiana, a decision later affirmed by a Vermont judge, who ordered ICE to move her to a Vermont facility by May 1.

The government challenged this ruling on April 24, and the appeals court agreed to review the government’s request to keep her in Louisiana and her legal team’s opposition, without making a ruling on the merits.

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