Free Speech For People has formally requested a review of the case in a letter to the Massachusetts Attorney General and the Middlesex County District Attorney 

SOMERVILLE, MA (April 9, 2025) – Free Speech For People and Somerville for Palestine have launched a joint petition calling for a criminal investigation into the kidnapping of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University student and Fulbright scholar whom federal immigration officials detained on March 25 off the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts, because of her public support for Palestine. This campaign follows Free Speech For People’s formal request to review the case, issued via a detailed letter this morning to Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell and  Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan. 

“The undisputed facts provide a basis for undertaking an inquiry into whether President Donald Trump, senior Trump officials – including Secretary Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem – and ICE agents conspired to kidnap Rümeysa Öztürk,” the letter states. “They unlawfully stripped her of her visa, forcibly restrained and arrested her, and secretly smuggled her out of Massachusetts, purposefully and in defiance of a court order, to a detention facility in Louisiana where she has been denied access to her attorneys and where her attorneys cannot verify the conditions of her confinement or whether she is receiving adequate medical care.” 

Öztürk is a Turkish citizen who has lived and studied in the United States on a valid student visa. One year ago, she co-wrote an op-ed in the Tufts school newspaper that called upon the university to abide by undergraduate student Senate resolutions that sought to hold Israel accountable for international law violations against the Palestinian people by divesting from Israeli companies. This exercise of her First Amendment rights appears to be the sole reason she was unlawfully kidnapped by plainclothes ICE officers, after the DHS stripped her of her visa that same day without notice. 

Free Speech For People and Somerville for Palestine are partnering in a public petition and advocacy campaign to urge both Attorney General Campbell and Middlesex District Attorney Ryan to launch a criminal investigation of those responsible for Öztürk’s kidnapping.