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Feminist, Peace Activist facing penal imprisonment(Turkey)
pinarselek.com - 09.02.2011 04:37
Amargi Women’s Solidarity Cooperative is calling all women, lesbian – feminist associations, and human rights groups and networks to stand by Pinar Selek in this critical moment.
Pınar Selek will be tried once again, on 9th of February(Wednesday), 2011 in Istanbul.
We are her witnesses, We still want justice
[  http://www.pinarselek.com/public/page_item.aspx?id=1154 ]
For Justice, We Stand By Pinar Selek
Amargi Women’s Solidarity Cooperative is calling all women, lesbian – feminist associations, and human rights groups and networks to stand by Pinar Selek in this critical moment.
Feminist, sociologist, anti-militarist peace activist, writer and founding member of Amargi Women’s Solidarity Cooperative, Pınar Selek is facing penal life imprisonment for a third time.
Selek is accused of belonging to the outlawed PKK, the Kurdish separatist organization, and laying a bomb in their name in Istanbul’s busy spice bazaar in 1998, killing seven people and injuring over one hundred more. She denies the charges against her and claims she is being politically persecuted because of what she has written.
When Selek was arrested two days after the blast, she was working on a potentially controversial book about the Kurdish movement, explaining they had chosen a path of violence in their struggle for independence. At the time, the PKK was waging war against Turkey and the authorities were determined to capture their leader Abdullah Öcalan.
Selek had been speaking to people in the PKK as part of her research and she said: “They arrested me and took all my documents. They started asking me questions about the people I’d been speaking to. I never wrote their names down.”
She was heavily tortured because of her refusal to give the names of the people she interviewed. She recalled: “They passed electroshocks through my brain, they dislocated my shoulder – lots of things. I just told myself, just resist for two minutes, two minutes, two more minutes. That’s how it happened, two minutes at a time.” It was only after a month of police interrogation that Selek discovered she was being accused of bombing the spice bazaar.
In the meantime, Pinar Selek spent two and a half years in custody, even though several more experts said that the blast could not have been caused by a bomb, and pointed to faulty gas pipes instead. In 2008, the Istanbul Criminal Court finally ruled that Selek was not guilty.
In 2009, the Criminal Office No. 9 of the Turkish Supreme Court decided to reverse the acquittal and demanded Pınar Selek be judged with a claim of 36 years of heavy imprisonment. Then in February 2010, the Supreme Court ordered the Criminal Court to retry the case, claiming she was a leading member of the outlawed PKK. The case was sent back to the Istanbul 12th High Criminal Court to revise its original decision of acquittal.
...
This is not the only case of political biases in Turkish judiciary system. According to Cem Sey, who writes for the liberal newspaper Taraf, the Turkish judiciary often cracks down on artists and writers who tackle taboo subjects like Kurdish rights and the Armenian genocide.
Selek’s case has already turned into a symbol for the struggle against discrimination and oppression. She is very well known in Turkey and abroad for her focus on different marginalized groups, with books on violence against transgender women in Istanbul, the history of peace struggles in Turkey and the construction of masculinity through military service experiences. This last book Sürüne Sürüne Erkek Olmak (Leading a Dog’s Life: Masculinity) was published in Germany under the title, Zum Mann gehätschelt. Zum Mann gedrillt.
Pınar Selek will be tried once again, on 9th of February, 2011 in
Istanbul 12th High Criminal Court located in Beşiktaş/Istanbul.
At this point all solidarity actions with Pınar Selek are of vital importance.
Sources:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,14809844,00.html
For further information and/or your proposals to support Pınar Selek,
please contact:
 halatanigizplatformu@gmail.com Still Witnesses Platform
yaseminsevval@yahoo.com
International spokesperson – Pınar Selek Support Campaign
karinkarakasli@yahoo.com member of Pınar Selek Support Campaign
Solidaritepinarselek.france@gmail.com
http://pinarselek.fr
solidarietapinarselek.italia@gmail.com
http://www.pinarselek.com/public/page_item.aspx?id=829
http://www.pinarselek.com/public/destek.aspx?id=45
Amargi Women’s Solidarity Cooperative/Istanbul is looking forward your precious contribution.
http://www.bekhsoos.com/web/2011/02/for-justice-we-stand-by-pinar-selek-2/
 Website: http://www.pinarselek.com/
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| Lees meer over: vrijheid, repressie & mensenrechten | | aanvullingen | | Acquitted from 1 case, 2nd case is postponed | bilidikit - 10.02.2011 00:34
Pinar Selek is acquitted from one of the cases, in which she was accused of putting a bomb in a bazaar and killing 7 people. The court was asking for life sentence in solitary confinement without parole. Unless there is no overruling from the Supreme Court of Appeals, this case is closed.
The second case, in which she is -still- accused of 'being a member of terrorist organization', is postponed to 22nd June 2011.
Pinar Selek was acquitted from this case before and the cases were revoked by Supreme Court and reopened. It's partly happy news after 13 years of ongoing court trials, but it is not finished. After the case her father, who is also her lawyer, said: 'Pinar is lucky, she has her friends and growing number of supporters around her, and her father is her lawyer. What about all the other young people who were accused of crimes they have not committed and who have spent their years in prisons in Turkey without this kind of juridical and mental support? I'm happy, at least Pinar will be a little bit relieved'
In an interview after the decision of the court, Pinar Selek said she is still recovering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, she doesn't want to think about what might come next, but she just wants to celebrate the moment.
links in english(includes mainstream media):
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkish-sociologist-once-more-acquitted-from-terrorism-charges-2011-02-09
http://www.onenewspage.com/news/Front+Page/20110209/19503486/Exiled-Turkish-writer-acquitted-of-bomb-charges-for.htm
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