Israeli court releases Turkish national pending trial

By Esat Firat

JERUSALEM (AA) - Turkish national Ebru Ozkan was released Wednesday pending trial after an Israeli military court decided to grant her conditional release.

Ozkan’s lawyer, Omar Khamaysa, said she had left HaSharon prison near Natanya city accompanied by officials of Turkey’s embassy in Tel Aviv.

Ozkan, 27, appeared at a hearing earlier in the day at the Ofer military court in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

On Tuesday, the court ruled to release Ozkan on bail set at 15,000 Israeli shekels (roughly $4,110). Prosecutors lodged an objection, but it was dismissed by the court.

Ozkan is forbidden to leave the country and her passport has been confiscated by Israeli police.

Ankara, meanwhile, has registered its objection to Ozkan’s arrest, vowing to take appropriate steps in response.

Ozkan was arrested on June 11 at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport for alleged links to “terrorist groups”.

She is not the first Turkish national to have been recently detained by Israeli authorities.

In January, Osman Hazir, a 46-year-old Turkish citizen, was arrested for snapping a selfie at East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque while holding a Turkish flag.

Last December, Israel arrested Abdullah Kizilirmak and Mehmet Gargili after they quarreled with Israeli police, who had tried to bar them from entering the flashpoint holy site.

The same month, Adem Koc was arrested inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for allegedly “disturbing the peace and taking part in an illegal demonstration”.