Israeli court releases Turkish woman Ebru Özkan pending trial

JERUSALEM - Anadolu Agency

Turkish national Ebru Özkan was released on July 11 pending trial after an Israeli military court decided to grant her conditional release.

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

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

On July 10, the court ruled to release Özkan on bail set at 15,000 Israeli shekels (roughly $4,110). Prosecutors lodged an objection, but it was dismissed by the court.

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

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

Özkan 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 Hazır, 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 Kızılırmak and Mehmet Gargılı after they quarreled with Israeli police, who had tried to bar them from entering the flashpoint holy site.

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