Turkey Wants Interpol to Arrest Pinar Selek

Last Janua­ry, we pos­ted on Pinar Selek’s convic­tion and sen­ten­cing to aggra­va­ted life impri­son­ment (i.e., impri­son­ment with no pos­si­bi­li­ty of parole) des­pite her having been acquit­ted of the same crime three times over a fif­teen-year per­iod.  It was, we said, a “Kaf­kaesque” and a “mocke­ry of jus­tice.”

Pinar’s attor­neys have appea­led the case ; howe­ver yes­ter­day the Tur­kish press repor­ted that Tur­key had issued a “red notice” — akin to an inter­na­tio­nal arrest war­rant — to have the French police arrest her and send her back to Tur­key.

When Pinar’s acquit­tal was rever­sed, Cen­giz Can­dar wrote in Al Moni­tor,

The Pınar Selek case will very soon become a sym­bol of injus­tice syno­ny­mous with Turkey’s name and will stay as a ble­mish. This case is slow­ly beco­ming an “spe­ci­men case” that will be a bur­den Tur­key will not be able to car­ry, one that will get in Turkey’s way on eve­ry inter­na­tio­nal plat­form.

Now that Tur­key has issued an inter­na­tio­nal order for Pinar’s arrest des­pite the case still being under appeal, the word “ble­mish” seems an unders­ta­te­ment.  What is puzz­ling is why the Tur­kish state seems so intent show­ca­sing the pro­found weak­nesses of its jus­tice sys­tem in the eyes of the world.

William Jones, Amnes­ty Inter­na­tio­nal – USA

http://humanrightsturkey.org/2013/08/28/turkey-wants-interpol-to-arrest-pinar-selek/