Ihen the news about Pinar Selek, sociologist, writer and human rights activist, reached us, we felt the same tension as when we learned of the unjust imprisonment of Osman Kavala or Selahattin Demirtas, and the countless injustices that we have not been able to prevent over the past decade.
Pinar, a dear friend to many, has been the victim of appalling injustice, or better said, judicial torture, for twenty-five years. And, since January, the Turkish authorities have decided to issue an international warrant for his arrest and imprisonment.
If all goes as the Turkish government wishes, Pinar, who is nevertheless a most exceptional human being, a decorated academic and a brilliant storyteller, will become a wanted criminal on a world level. All this because she was born in a country where the peoples are pitted against each other (Armenians, Kurds, Turks, etc.). She was one of the few people who dared to cross these borders to collect stories of peace, much like Osman, Selahattin, or our dear friend Hrant Dink, who was shot in 2007. And, just like theirs, her official story is maddeningly ridiculous.
Deficiencies in the legal process
The Turkish authorities are looking for Pinar because of a bomb attack that did not take place! In 1998, an explosion occurred in the Istanbul spice market. Despite numerous expert reports indicating that it was not an attack but an accident caused by a gas leak, shadows operating within the Turkish judicial system decided that it must be of a bomb, and that Pinar must have been the one who planted it.
After the “attack”, she was taken into custody. She was severely tortured (strapping, electrocution…) for a week, but none of the torturers questioned her about the explosion. After a court hearing without legal assistance and a lot of false evidence, she remained in prison for two and a half years. The flaws in the legal process eventually became so glaring that she was released. But some shadows of the Turkish police were not satisfied with this release. The case was therefore reopened with new fabricated evidence, and the so-called legal process remained open until today.
Over the past twenty-five years, she has been acquitted several times, but her legal case has always returned to court thanks to insistent appeals from prosecutors. And, in January, the highest court of the Supreme Court made the final decision: Pinar is sentenced to life.
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