A federal judge ruled on May 9 to free Rumeysa Ozturk from the Louisiana detention centre where she had been held for over six weeks.
Ozturk, a Tufts Psychology PhD student who was abducted by plainclothes ICE officers in March while on her way to an iftar gathering in Massachusetts, has endured conditions at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Centre that have significantly affected her health.
Spending over a month with around 30 other women in a cell designed for half that number, along with unsanitary conditions throughout the facility, has triggered frequent asthma attacks – one of which occurred during today’s court hearing.
Ozturk’s lawyers stated at a press conference following the hearing that “a complete lack of evidence” had been presented by the government in court.
They described US District Judge William Sessions’s decision to release Ozturk as a “very thoughtful reflection of all the evidence put forward” by her and her legal team, emphasising that she is “absolutely not a danger to her community, not a flight risk, but an asset to our community.”