“I can say that they wanted to close this file, before the election, and they did not succeed! Pinar Selek, a few minutes after the outcome of her trial in absentia, which was held today, was in video with the delegation of lawyers and friends who supported her during her trial in Istanbul. On the spot, as told by Martin Pradel, one of the main lawyers for the sociologist, all were surrounded by the police carrying batons and shields to prevent them from speaking to the press after leaving the court.
“The relentlessness continues,” says Pinar Selek. The political nature of this trial is even more apparent. But I see our strength in the legal fight: my lawyers have really shown the very concrete defects in form in this file, and after all the national and international solidarity that I have been the subject of, they have not taken a decision. Today. They failed to convict me. The postponement is requested on the grounds that they want to hear from me, after my extradition they are asking France and Interpol. It is now urgent for France to speak out, and human rights organizations must take a very firm position without waiting for things to get worse. It is now on the shoulders of the authorities of France and Europe that everything rests. »
One of his main lawyers, Martin Pradel, clarified during the same videoconference: “We feared that the Istanbul court considered that the sentence which had to be confirmed was automatic. The court could not convict you today. You have been acquitted 4 times. Today, we have to stop there. Your freedom cannot give rise to this revenge expected by the Turkish authorities. »
The hearing of his new trial was held well on March 31 in Istanbul, but Pinar Selek did not go there. In addition to this European delegation, friends and a committee of Turkish supporters were on hand her father, a 93-year-old lawyer, who experienced prison after the 1980 coup, and her sister, who became a lawyer to defend her. An almost full-time job, as confided to us by the sociologist and writer whose career borders on torture. A torture that is not about to end, since his trial has been postponed to September 29.
Today it is a question of reinforcing the protection around the Turkish sociologist, the requests are in progress, because, as she said at the end of this exchange between her in France and her friends in Turkey: “They want me ! »
A political refugee in France since 2011, becoming French in 2017, she has been on the radar of the Turkish government for 25 years. Although acquitted four times, she finds herself again in the hot seat since the prosecution is constantly appealing. And each time, the Court of Cassation cancels the acquittal. Worse, in June 2022, the Supreme Court annuls all of the acquittals: an international arrest warrant is issued, accompanied by a warrant of immediate imprisonment…
Ten years ago, faced with her life sentence by an Istanbul court for terrorism, she requested political asylum in France where she has been teaching at the University of Nice since 2016. “Part of the state wants sentence me to life for killing people, but no one believes in this attack anymore, which was in fact an explosion in a spice market in Istanbul,” said Pinar Selek. The context was then particularly tense between the regime and the Kurdish party, the PKK.
It all started in 1998, before Erdogan arrived: in 1998, she was 27 years old. Her research on minorities leads her to interview Kurds and she then finds herself in the sights of the authorities, who want names. She is imprisoned. Tortured. Between 2006 and 2014, she will be acquitted four times.
What does this new trial demanded by new judges mean on the eve of the presidential elections in Turkey? “Most thinking people in Turkey immediately understood that the pre-election work had begun. I believe that we can expect other events of this kind until the elections, perhaps other attacks or other accusations, other criminalizations. It is a strategy of chaos and terror, “she confided on January 17 to our colleagues at RFI. The elections will take place in mid-May.
Let’s not forget that Pinar Selek is also a writer and in particular the author of La Maison du Bosphore (Liana Levi, 2013), a book on the Armenian genocide which only made her situation worse, Because they are Armenian (Liana Levi, 2015). Last year she published with the editions of women Azucena or Les fourmis zinzines where she shows Nice through the eyes of foreigners from her adopted city.
