The major events in the trial of Pinar Selek, feminist and anti-militarist activist

1998 – Arrest

• Pinar Selek is ques­tio­ned about her research on the Kur­dish issue. She is impri­so­ned for her alle­ged invol­ve­ment with the PKK and is tor­tu­red for refu­sing to dis­close the names of her Kur­dish contacts.
• While in pri­son, she learns on TV that she is char­ged with ter­ro­rist acti­vi­ty fol­lo­wing a recent explo­sion at the spice mar­ket in Istan­bul
• Foren­sic report : “No bomb”. The explo­sion at the spice mar­ket is due to a gas leak (which was confir­med by eve­ry other inde­pendent exper­tise since 1998)

2000 – Release and begin­ning of trial

• Istan­bul’s high court releases Pinar Selek on bail after two and a half years of deten­tion. Howe­ver, in a let­ter addres­sed to the pre­sident of the court, the Minis­try of Inter­ior and Istan­bul Police Depart­ment argue against her release. They sub­mit a new report empha­si­zing the cri­mi­nal nature of the explo­sion.

2006 – First acquit­tal

• Istan­bul’s 12th Assize Court acquits Pinar Selek due to lack of mate­rial evi­dence against her.

2007

• Des­pite reports and wit­nesses pro­ving Pinar Selek’s inno­cence, the pro­se­cu­tor seeks aggra­va­ted life impri­son­ment.

2008 – Second acquit­tal

• Pinar Selek faces a second appeal, promp­ting her to leave Tur­key for exile in Ber­lin, and later Stras­bourg.

2011 – Third acquit­tal

• Istan­bul’s 12th Assize Court drops all charges against Pinar Selek, acquit­ting her for the third time.

2012 – Third appeal

• Unex­pec­ted­ly, the case faces a third appeal, a rare occur­rence in Tur­kish juris­pru­dence. resul­ting in the trial being sent back to the 9th Cham­ber of the Istan­bul Cri­mi­nal Court for the third time.

2013 – Convic­tion and annulment

• On Janua­ry 24, 2013, Istan­bul’s 12th Cri­mi­nal Court sen­tences Pinar Selek to life impri­son­ment.
• Her lawyers chal­lenge the lega­li­ty of the deci­sion, lea­ding to its annulment by the 9th Court of Cas­sa­tion in Anka­ra on June 11, 2014.

2014 – Fourth acquit­tal

• In Decem­ber 2014, the case is retried at Istan­bul’s 15th Cri­mi­nal Court, which acquits Pinar Selek.
• The pro­se­cu­tor imme­dia­te­ly appeals to the Court of Cas­sa­tion.

2022 – Annulment of acquit­tal

• On June 21, 2022, after 7 years, the Court of Cas­sa­tion annuls the fourth acquit­tal.

2023

• Janua­ry 6, 2023 : Istan­bul’s Assize Court issues an arrest war­rant for imme­diate impri­son­ment, even before a new hea­ring takes place.
• March 31, 2023 : Trial hea­ring at the Assize Court. Pinar Selek’s lawyers argue about all the pro­ce­du­ral irre­gu­la­ri­ties and for jus­tice to be ser­ved. The debate is post­po­ned under the pre­text that Pinar had to be present to be jud­ged (rea­son given for an extra­di­tion request). The arrest war­rant remains in effect. Howe­ver, a judg­ment could have been ren­de­red in her absence.
• Sep­tem­ber 29 : Hea­ring at the cri­mi­nal court. The Cri­mi­nal Court of Istan­bul once again post­pones the exa­mi­na­tion of the case until June 28, 2024. Eve­ry time a court has loo­ked into the case, it has ack­now­led­ged that there is no evi­dence against Pinar. France, expec­ted to review an extra­di­tion request, still hasn’t recei­ved it. The Tur­kish Minis­try of Jus­tice itself has retur­ned the dos­sier to the Court, dee­ming the request insuf­fi­cient­ly moti­va­ted. In a context where Tur­key is reap­plying for mem­ber­ship in the Euro­pean Union, the denial of jus­tice she faces undoub­ted­ly reflects poor­ly.
• The Tur­kish jus­tice sys­tem aims to impri­son Pinar Selek for life for her research, lite­ra­ry works, and advo­ca­cy for Kur­dish and Arme­nian mino­ri­ties, femi­nist move­ments, and Tur­kish LGBTQ+ mino­ri­ties. It has been poli­ti­cal­ly tar­ge­ting her for over 25 years. This poli­ti­cal­ly moti­va­ted trial for ter­ro­sim repre­sents one of the most extreme forms of infrin­ge­ment on free­dom of expres­sion and aca­de­mic free­dom, which are threa­te­ned today world­wide.

Coor­di­na­tion of soli­da­ri­ty groups with Pinar Selek.