05/01/2014 BY DERWOMBAT

Prosecutors at the Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals have demanded the approval of a life sentence meted out to sociologist Pınar Selek ahead of an appeal hearing in the case.

The feminist scholar, who resides in Strasbourg and is known for her works on Kurds, was convicted of bombing Istanbul’s famous Spice Bazaar in 1998 and sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment last January, despite being acquitted of the same charge three times in the past.

Prosecutors said Selek’s sentence on charges of should be approved despite lawyers arguing that the Kafkaesque judicial procedure breached all known international and Turkish standards concerning double jeopardy and criminal trials.

Selek was allegedly subjected to torture for a year while in detention until she was released in December 2000, only to be retried. The appeal court eventually acquitted her for a third time before she was again convicted in 2012 for being a member of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) with the code name “Leyla.”

Yılmazabdurrahmanoğlu rejected the verdict on the grounds that there was a lack of proof that the explosion was even caused by a bomb, but he was outvoted by his colleagues on the court board.

Following the ruling, the Turkish Justice Ministry issued a red notice for Selek’s capture and applied to French authorities for her extradition.

The ruling has transformed Selek into a symbol of the struggle for human rights in Turkey.

via Hurryet Daily News

Source:
http://derwombat.net/2014/01/05/turks-demand-life-sentence-for-pinar-selek/