Ebru Ozkan
Israel frees Turk after charging her with aiding Hamas
Ebru Ozkan, who was in Israel on a tourist visa, was accused of trying to launder money for Hamas; an appeals court ordered her freed and returned her passport, her lawyer says; indictment still stands.
Israel has released a Turkish woman who had been arrested
while visiting on a tourist visa and accused of helping the Hamas terror group,
in a case that angered Ankara, her lawyer said on Monday.
Turkey threatened retaliation after Ebru Ozkan's detention last month. The ex-allies have long been at loggerheads over Israeli policy toward the Palestinians and Jerusalem's status.
Ozkan's lawyer, Omar Khamaisi, said she flew to Istanbul on Sunday, a week after an IDF court indicted her. An appeals court had ordered her freed and returned her passport, he told Reuters, adding: "The indictment still stands, but I think that will be cancelled too."
Ebru Ozkan
The Turkish news agency Anadlou quoted Ozkan, upon landing, as thanking President Tayyip Erdogan for having been "kind enough to be very interested in my case."
An IDF spokesman had no immediate comment.
Ozkan was held at Ben Gurion Airport last month while trying to board her original flight home after a visit that took her to Jerusalem, whose Al Aqsa Mosque draws pilgrims from the few Muslim countries that have relations with Israel.
Ebru Ozkan arrives in court (צילום: שמיר אלבז)
She was charged with helping smuggling money and packages to Hamas, which is classed as a terrorist group in Israel and the West, but not by NATO-power Turkey. Ozkan's lawyer dismissed the charges as baseless and, potentially, politically motivated.
Hamas did not comment on the case.
Turkey's Islamist-rooted government had cited Israel's treatment of Ozkan and several other detained Turkish visitors as among "inhumane policies" that were souring bilateral ties.
Ankara vocally opposed the US recognition in December of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Palestinians want a state with a capital in eastern parts of the city where Al Aqsa, as well as major Jewish and Christian shrines, are housed.
