TURKEY : Outrage following the conviction of Pinar Selek to life imprisonment

Paris-Gene­va, Janua­ry 25, 2013. Yes­ter­day, Ms. Pinar Selek was sen­ten­ced to life impri­son­ment on ter­ro­rism-rela­ted charges. The Obser­va­to­ry for the Pro­tec­tion of Human Rights Defen­ders, a joint pro­gramme of the Inter­na­tio­nal Fede­ra­tion for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Orga­ni­sa­tion Against Tor­ture (OMCT), which sent obser­vers to seve­ral of the hea­rings, is dee­ply sho­cked by the out­come of this 15-year long judi­cial harass­ment.

On Janua­ry 24, 2013, Istan­bul Hea­vy Penal Court No. 12 convic­ted and sen­ten­ced to life impri­son­ment Ms. Pinar Selek, a wri­ter and socio­lo­gist who has been acti­ve­ly defen­ding the rights of vul­ne­rable com­mu­ni­ties in Tur­key, for alle­ged­ly cau­sing a bomb to explode in Istanbul’s Egyp­tian bazaar on July 9, 1998 and mem­ber­ship in a ter­ro­rist orga­ni­sa­tion. The Court argued that it had deci­ded to defer to the Court of Cas­sa­tion’s request to convict and sen­tence Ms. Pinar Selek to life impri­son­ment.

The Obser­va­to­ry recalls that, in 1998, Ms. Pinar Selek was in turn accu­sed without proof of sup­por­ting the Kur­dis­tan Wor­kers’ Par­ty (PKK) and then of cau­sing a bomb to explode in Istanbul’s Egyp­tian bazaar on July 9 of the same year. On the basis of these accu­sa­tions, she was detai­ned during two years and sub­jec­ted to tor­ture and ill-treat­ment, until her pro­vi­sio­nal release in 2000. Istan­bul Hea­vy Penal Court No. 12 acquit­ted her on three occa­sions : in 2006, 2008, and 2011. Not­withs­tan­ding, the Pro­se­cu­tor constant­ly appea­led against the acquit­tal before the Court of Cas­sa­tion, which qua­shed the acquit­tal deci­sions.

The Obser­va­to­ry recalls that the cri­mi­nal case fai­led to demons­trate that Ms. Pinar Selek was invol­ved in any ter­ro­rism-rela­ted acti­vi­ty. Indeed, court’s inves­ti­ga­tions lar­ge­ly confir­med the absence of any bomb and attri­bu­ted the explo­sion to a gas leak ; in addi­tion the other defen­dant in the case who had accu­sed her during inter­ro­ga­tion with­drew his sta­te­ment during the trial.

Over the course of its moni­to­ring of the trial, the Obser­va­to­ry noti­ced a series of irre­gu­la­ri­ties both to domes­tic law and to inter­na­tio­nal human rights stan­dards. A judi­cial obser­va­tion note will be publi­shed short­ly.

“I am dee­ply sho­cked by this ver­dict. This is a paro­dy of jus­tice”, denoun­ced Sou­hayr Bel­has­sen, FIDH Pre­sident.

“This case is unpre­ce­den­ted”, added Gerald Sta­be­rock, OMCT Secre­ta­ry Gene­ral. “We firm­ly condemn this deci­sion, and call upon the judi­cia­ry autho­ri­ties of Tur­key to review it imme­dia­te­ly”, he conclu­ded.

More gene­ral­ly, the Obser­va­to­ry fur­ther rei­te­rates its call on the Tur­kish judi­cial autho­ri­ties to review its last deci­sion and put an end to the unin­ter­rup­ted harass­ment that has been tar­ge­ting Ms. Pinar Selek for more than 14 years, as it seems to mere­ly aim at sanc­tio­ning her for her legi­ti­mate exer­cise of the free­dom of opi­nion and expres­sion.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, please contact :
• FIDH : Audrey Cou­prie / Arthur Manet : + 33 1 43 55 25 18
• OMCT : Del­phine Recu­leau : + 41 22 809 49 39