Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish doctoral pupil from Tufts University, stated she feared she was going to die when masked U.S. brokers all of the sudden detained her with out warning outdoors her Massachusetts house final month.
Öztürk described the March 25 arrest as “strange” in a court docket doc submitted Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
“I thought this was a strange situation and was sure they were going to kill me,” she wrote, including that brokers had been “all wearing civilian clothes.”
She famous that “this was a strange situation and was sure they were going to kill me.”
Saying she was chatting with her mom on the cellphone when a number of males surrounded her, took her cellphone and ignored her repeated requests to know who they had been.
Although one briefly confirmed a badge, she stated it was too fast to learn and supplied no assurance.
“But I didn’t think that they were the police because I had never seen police approach and take someone away like this,” she wrote.
Öztürk was pushed to a number of places, together with one the place she stated: “It was an isolated place with four men and it was terrifying.”
She was later flown to a detention facility within the state of Louisiana, the place she has skilled a number of bronchial asthma assaults and stated she was denied correct medical therapy.
One episode struck throughout a layover at an airport in Atlanta, the place she was unable to get her prescribed medicine.
Conditions on the facility are “unsanitary, unsafe, and inhumane,” she stated, citing overcrowding, poor hygiene and verbal mistreatment.
Öztürk stated a nurse tried to take away her scarf with out her consent throughout a medical verify.
“She said ‘you need to take that thing off your head’ and took off my hejab (headscarf) without asking my permission. I told her you can’t take off my hejab and she said this is for your health. After a few minutes I put my hejab back on. But they did nothing to treat my asthma and gave me a few ibuprofen,” Öztürk said.
Hoping to return to Tufts University to complete her research, she stated: “I only have about 9 months left to complete it and am very concerned about not being able to finish my studies.”
“I pray every day for my release so I can go back to my home and community in Somerville,” she added.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has confirmed that Öztürk’s pupil F-1 visa had been revoked and defended her detention. Authorities declare she engaged in actions supporting the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, with out offering proof.
A viral video captured the moments Öztürk was detained, exhibiting masked Department of Homeland Security brokers handcuffing her and forcibly taking away her cellphone.
Öztürk’s attorneys and supporters argue that she was detained for co-writing an op-ed in The Tufts Daily in March 2024 that criticized the college’s dealing with of the pro-Palestinian motion.
Öztürk’s detention comes amid the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on pro-Palestinian college students and teachers, together with the detention of Palestinian activist and up to date Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil and Georgetown University researcher Badar Khan Suri.
Source: www.dailysabah.com