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  • Peguam untuk pelajar Turki di Universiti Tufts ditahan ejen persekutuan gesa kerajaan kemukakannya

    Foto sumbangan ini menunjukkan Rumeysa Ozturk dalam perjalanan memetik epal pada 2021. (AP)

    BOSTON – Seorang peguam untuk warga Turki dan pelajar kedoktoran di Universiti Tufts yang ditahan oleh ejen Jabatan Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (DHS) Amerika Syarikat memfailkan usul tergempar pada Khamis meminta kerajaan mengemukakannya.

    Permintaan itu dibuat sehari selepas Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, dihalang oleh ejen persekutuan bertopeng selepas dia meninggalkan rumahnya di Somerville, Massachusetts. Seorang hakim persekutuan yang mengetuai kesnya mengarahkan peguam yang mewakili kerajaan menjawab usul itu pagi Khamis.

    Video diperoleh The Associated Press (AP) nampaknya menunjukkan enam orang, muka mereka ditutup, mengambil telefon Rumeysa ketika dia menjerit dan digari pada Rabu.

    “Kami polis,” ahli kumpulan itu kedengaran berkata dalam video itu.

    Kedengaran seorang penonton bertanya, “Mengapa kamu menyembunyikan wajah kamu?”

    Hakim Daerah AS Indira Talwani pada mulanya mengeluarkan perintah memberi kerajaan sehingga Jumaat untuk menjawab mengapa Rumeysa ditahan.

    Indira juga mengarahkan supaya Rumeysa tidak dipindahkan ke luar Daerah Massachusetts tanpa notis awal 48 jam.

    Imigresen AS dan Penguatkuasaan Kastam berkata pada Khamis bahawa Rumeysa ditahan di pusat tahanan di Basile, Louisiana, dan telah bercakap dengan peguamnya.

    Jurucakap kanan Jabatan Keselamatan Dalam Negeri turut mengesahkan penahanan Rumeysa dan penamatan visanya.

    “Penyiasatan DHS dan (Penguatkuasaan Imigresen dan Kastam) mendapati Ozturk terlibat dalam aktiviti menyokong Hamas, sebuah pertubuhan pengganas asing yang menggemari pembunuhan rakyat Amerika. Visa adalah keistimewaan, bukan hak. Mengagungkan dan menyokong pengganas yang membunuh rakyat Amerika adalah alasan untuk pengeluaran visa ditamatkan. Ini adalah keselamatan akal sehat,” kata jurucakap itu kepada AP.

    DHS tidak memberikan contoh sokongan Rumeysa terhadap Hamas, yang ditetapkan oleh kerajaan AS sebagai organisasi pengganas.

    Penahanan itu nampaknya sebahagian daripada ikrar Presiden Donald Trump untuk menghantar pulang pelajar yang, katanya, terlibat dalam “aktiviti pro-pengganas, anti-Semitik, anti-Amerika,” menerapkannya secara meluas kepada mereka yang mengkritik Israel dan membantah kempen ketenteraannya di Gaza.

    Hamas menyerang Israel pada 7 Okt 2023, membunuh 1,200 orang, kebanyakannya orang awam, dan mengambil kira-kira 250 tebusan. Serangan balas Israel telah membunuh lebih 50,000 orang, menurut Kementerian Kesihatan Gaza, dan memusnahkan sebahagian besar kawasan itu.

    Beratus-ratus orang berkumpul di Somerville, pada 26 Mac 2025, untuk menuntut pembebasan Rumeysa Ozturk, seorang pelajar Turki di Universiti Tufts, yang ditangkap oleh ejen persekutuan malam Selasa. (AP)

    Rumeysa, yang beragama Islam, bertemu rakan-rakan untuk berbuka puasa, hidangan berbuka pada waktu matahari terbenam pada Ramadan, kata peguamnya, Mahsa Khanbabai.

    Dia berkata tiada pertuduhan telah difailkan terhadap Rumeysa.

    “Kami berhubung dengan pegawai tempatan, negeri dan persekutuan yang dipilih dan berharap Rumeysa diberi peluang untuk memanfaatkan hak proses sewajarnya,” kata Presiden Universiti Tufts Sunil Kumar dalam satu kenyataan malam Rabu.

    “Universiti sedang berusaha secara aktif untuk menyokong komuniti Tufts ketika ia menggerakkan sumber kolektif dan hubungannya bagi memastikan keselamatan dan kesejahteraan pelajar kami.”

    Rumeysa adalah salah seorang daripada empat pelajar Mac lalu yang menulis pendapat dalam The Tufts Daily mengkritik respons universiti terhadap tuntutan pelajar bahawa Tufts “memperakui genosid Palestin,” mendedahkan pelaburannya dan melepaskan daripada syarikat yang mempunyai hubungan langsung atau tidak langsung dengan Israel.

    Selepas pendapat itu diterbitkan, nama, gambar dan sejarah kerja Rumeysa telah diterbitkan di laman web Canary Mission, sebuah laman web yang menggambarkan dirinya sebagai mendokumentasikan orang yang “mempromosikan kebencian terhadap USA, Israel dan Yahudi di kampus kolej Amerika Utara.”

    Rakan-rakan Rumeysa berkata dia tidak memainkan peranan penting dalam protes kampus yang meletus musim bunga lalu terhadap tentera Israel di Gaza.

    “Terdapat perbezaan yang sangat penting antara menulis surat menyokong senat pelajar dan mengambil jenis tindakan yang mereka tuduhkan, yang saya tidak melihat buktinya,” kata Jennifer Hoyden, rakan dan bekas rakan sekelas Rumeysa di Kolej Perguruan Universiti Columbia.

    “Dia datang ke negara ini untuk mengembangkan pengetahuannya dan menyumbang kepada masyarakat yang aman,” tambah Hoyden. “Saya tidak boleh menekankan betapa damai, baik dan lembut dia sebagai seorang manusia.”

    AN-AP, 27.3.2025

  • Lawyer for Turkish student at Tufts University detained by feds calls for government to produce her

    This contributed photo shows Rumeysa Ozturk on an apple-picking trip in 2021. (AP)

    BOSTON – A lawyer for a Turkish national and doctoral student at Tufts University who was detained by US Department of Homeland Security agents filed an emergency motion Thursday requesting that the government produce her.

    The request was made a day after Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, was stopped by masked federal agents after she left her home in Somerville, Massachusetts. A federal judge presiding over her case ordered lawyers representing the government to respond to the motion Thursday morning.

    Video obtained by The Associated Press appears to show six people, their faces covered, taking away Ozturk’s phone as she yells and is handcuffed on Wednesday.

    “We’re the police,” members of the group are heard saying in the video.

    A bystander is heard asking, “Why are you hiding your faces?”
    US District Judge Indira Talwani initially issued an order giving the government until Friday to answer why Ozturk was being detained.

    Talwani also ordered that Ozturk not be moved outside the District of Massachusetts without 48 hours advance notice.

    The US Immigration and Custom Enforcement said Thursday that Ozturk was being held at a detention center in Basile, Louisiana, and has spoken to her lawyer. A senior Department of Homeland Security spokesperson also confirmed Ozturk’s detention and the termination of her visa.

    “DHS and (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans. A visa is a privilege, not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is common sense security,” the spokesperson told the AP.

    The DHS did not provide examples of Ozturk’s support of Hamas, which is designated by the US government as a terrorist organization.

    The arrest appears to be part of President Donald Trump’s pledge to deport students who, he said, engage in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity,” applying it broadly to those who criticize Israel and protest its military campaign in Gaza.

    Hamas’ invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 50,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and destroyed much of the enclave.

    Hundreds of people gather in Somerville, on Mar. 26, 2025, to demand the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, who was arrested by federal agents Tuesday night. (AP)

    Ozturk, who is Muslim, was meeting friends for iftar, a meal that breaks a fast at sunset during Ramadan, her attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai said. She said no charges have been filed against Ozturk.

    “We are in touch with local, state, and federal elected officials and hope that Rumeysa is provided the opportunity to avail herself of her due process rights,” Tufts University President Sunil Kumar said in a statement Wednesday night. “The university is actively working to support the Tufts community as it mobilizes its collective resources and contacts to ensure our students’ safety and wellbeing.”

    Ozturk was one of four students last March who wrote an op-ed in The Tufts Daily criticizing the university’s response to student demands that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.

    After the op-ed was published, Ozturk’s name, photograph and work history were published on the website Canary Mission, a website that describes itself as documenting people who “promote hatred of the USA., Israel and Jews on North American college campuses.”

    Friends of Ozturk’s say she did not play a prominent role in campus protests that erupted last spring against the Israel’s military in Gaza.

    “There’s a very important distinction between writing a letter supporting the student senate and taking the kind of action they’re accusing her of, which I’ve seen no evidence of,” said Jennifer Hoyden, a friend and former classmate of Ozturk’s at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

    “She came to this country seeking to expand her knowledge and contribute to a peaceful society,” Hoyden added. “I cannot stress enough how peaceful and kind and gentle she is as a human being.”

    AN-AP, 27.3.2025