Press Release
Hundreds Rally for Detained Tufts Student Rümeysa Öztürk as Court Deliberates Case
BURLINGTON, VT — On April 14, several hundred demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. District Court in Burlington, demanding the release of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish graduate student at Tufts University. Öztürk was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after co-authoring an op-ed criticizing her university’s response to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
A federal court recently paused Öztürk’s transfer from a Louisiana detention center back to Vermont, where she is expected to attend a bail hearing. Judge William K. Sessions III had ordered her transfer by May 1. However, following an emergency filing from the federal government, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York issued a stay on Sessions’ order, with a hearing scheduled for May 6 by a three-judge panel.
The appeals court’s order clarified that the stay aims to provide ample time for the court to review the government’s motion and does not imply a judgment on the issue itself. Öztürk, enrolled in a doctoral program focused on child and human development, was apprehended in late March by masked officers near her Somerville, Massachusetts, apartment.
Her legal team argues that her detention is a violation of her rights, asserting that she has been wrongfully targeted due to her free speech activities related to her op-ed in Tufts’ student newspaper.
The ongoing legal battle has drawn significant public attention, with supporters rallying for her release and advocating for academic freedom and the protection of students’ rights. The court’s forthcoming hearing will determine the next steps in this heated case.
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