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TURKEY: PEN International Concerned About Pinar Selek Trial
PEN International WiPC | RAN 75/12 Update #1
On 13 December 2012 writer, sociologist and feminist, Pınar Selek, faces retrial on charges she has already been acquitted of an incredible three times. If found guilty, she faces life in prison with no chance of parole. The Writers in Prison Committee of PEN International is seriously concerned that Selek is being subjected to a campaign of judicial harassment as a means of penalising her for her long standing support for and work on minority groups in Turkey. Selek fled Turkey a number of years ago as a result of the charges she is still facing, and cannot return to the country and resume her work due to the threat of arrest and detention.
Selek is accused of involvement in an explosion at the Istanbul Spice Bazaar in 1998, a tragedy that led to the deaths of seven people and injuries to 127 others. She was arrested in July 1998, and then freed two and a half years later after a team of experts concluded that the explosion had not been caused by a bomb, but by the accidental ignition of a gas cylinder. Despite these findings, the case against Selek and her co-defendants continued, and in December 2005 a new trial was opened against her. This trial ended with an acquittal six months later in June 2006.
In March 2009, the Court of Appeals requested a review of the case and reversed the acquittal. This went to consideration, and in May 2009 Selek was acquitted for a second time. In February 2010, the Court of Appeals objected again, and sent the case for review once more. The lower court refused to conduct a review on the grounds that the acquittal was legitimately and fairly given, and upheld Selek’s acquittal in February 2011 for a third time. However, at a 22 November 2012 hearing, the lower court decided to drop its refusal and proceed with reopening the trial against Selek on grounds that the refusal had been ‘contrary to procedure’. The first hearing of the reopened trial will be heard on 13 December at the Çağlayan Courts of Justice, with all five suspects in the case being tried in absentia.
Commentators believe that the renewed prosecution of Selek is linked to her work as a sociologist researching Kurdish issues in the mid-to-late 1990s, and to contact with the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK). According to PEN sources, no evidence has been presented that shows Selek to have been a member of the PKK or to have engaged in violent activities. It is widely believed that she is being pursued through the courts as a means of penalising her for her legitimate research and commentary. These concerns are intensified by the allegations that Selek, during her imprisonment from 1998-2000, suffered torture under investigation in an attempt to make her confess to the charges.
PEN International Vice President Eugene Schoulgin will be closely following the trial in Istanbul.
For more information go to:
The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT): Human Rights Defenders Urgent Intervention
Bianet: Intellectuals to Meet Minister of Justice for Selek
Please send appeals:
- Expressing concern that another trial has been opened against Pınar Selek on charges of which she has already been acquitted three times.
- Urging that the charges against Selek are dismissed.
Send appeals to:
Mr Sadullah Ergin
Minister of Justice
06669 Kizilay
Ankara
Turkey
Fax: 00 90 312 419 3370
Email: sadullahergin@adalet.gov.tr
Also to the Turkish ambassador in your country.
**Please contact the PEN WiPC office in London if sending appeals after 12 February 2013**
For further information please contact Sara Whyatt at the Writers in Prison Committee of PEN International, Brownlow House, 50-51 High Holborn, London WC1V 6ER Tel: +44 (02) 20 7405 0338 Fax: +44 (0) 20 74050339 Email: sara.whyatt@pen-international.org
Sara Whyatt | Programme Director, Writers in Prison Committee | PEN International t. +44 (0)20 7405 0338 | m. +44 (0)7824640527 | e. Twitter | Facebook |www.pen-international.org
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