Arrest caused criticism: Turkish woman imprisoned in the USA to be released

The arrest has a dystopian quality: Several men approach a doctoral student, surround her, and arrest her. The US government accuses her of supporting Hamas. She has been detained for weeks for this reason. A judge is now putting an end to this. The US President's spokeswoman reacted harshly.

A Turkish doctoral student arrested in the US state of Massachusetts has been released from prison after approximately six weeks in custody. A judge ordered the woman's immediate release and deemed her detention unlawful, according to US media reports.

The Tufts University student was arrested at the end of March. Surveillance camera footage caused outrage in the US. It shows several men in dark civilian clothing, some wearing hoodies, approaching the woman. The frightened-looking doctoral student is surrounded and then led away.

The US administration of President Donald Trump accuses her of supporting the terrorist Hamas. She co-authored an article in a 2024 student newspaper that, among other things, called on the university to acknowledge the existence of a genocide against Palestinians.

Asked about the case, Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said she had not yet been informed of the judge's decision. She added, however, that "lower court judges should not dictate the foreign policy of the United States." A U.S. visa is not a right, but a privilege.

The US government has recently arrested several foreign students, accusing them of supporting Hamas. The most notorious case is that of activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested several weeks ago. He was arrested in March at his New York home and taken from there to a detention center in Louisiana. A graduate of New York's Columbia University, he holds a green card.