Members of ''Platform of Still Witnesses'', who have pursued justice during the unjust trial of Pınar Selek for 12 years, made a press conference on March 4th, 2010 in Istanbul. Their decleration is as follows:   

Feminist sociologist , peace activist and writer Pınar Selek, was watching tv in prison where she was kept as a result of a conspiracy  and due to a research she has conducted, when all of a sudden she heard the annoucement at the evening news that she was being accused of the explosion at Spice Bazaar that had happened one and a half months ago. There for the first time, she became aware of the horrifying truth that she was tried to be pushed into a greater plot tahn she could ever imagine. We all share this horror with her for about twelve years.

Pınar Selek was acquitted of this “case of conspiracy” twice in 2006 and 2008. Still, the acquittal was unjustly reversed by the Criminal Department number 9 of the Supreme Court in March 2009 and life sentence in solitary confinement and with no possiblity of parole was demanded. The objection of the Supreme Court’s Head Prosecution Office against the decision of Criminal Department number 9 was also rejected with a majority of votes in the Supreme Court Criminal General Assembly in February 2010. 

We have all witnessed how unjustly Pınar Selek has been blamed for the explosion in the Spice Bazaar for the past 12 years and how each and every allegation has been disproved one by one including the explosion of Spice Bazaar; thus we have openly declared the innocence of Selek in front of public opinion. Now at this point we have reached, we are all higly astonished and reactive. We find it very difficult to find the appropriate words to utter in such an atmosphere where the border between reality and fiction is blurred and the ground of justice is so sliding. We want that this injustice to be revised immediately and demand justice.

Two days after the explosion in Spice Bazaar, Pınar Selek was taken into custody due to her research. During the interrogation at the police, she was posed not a single question concerning the issue of Spice Bazaar.  She has not a single declaration about this subject matter even in her testimony taken under torture. Approximately one and a half months after the explosion, she was related to the event relying on the testimony of Abdülmecit Öztürk given to the police under torture stating  “to have committed this act together with Pınar Selek”. However,  Abdülmecit Öztürk repeatedly declared during the trial that he did not know Pınar Selek at all and that he was forced to this testimony under heavy pressure and torture.

The main cause for the accusation brought about against Pınar Selek concerning the event at Spice Bazaar is Abdülmecit Öztürk’s confession during the interrogation which he himself rejected later on and which turned to a scandal  without being supported by a single proof. At this recent point we have reached the acquittal of Öztürk who stated “to have done the operation” has been approved while life sentence in solitary confinement and with no possibility of parole has been demanded for Pınar Selek who hasn’t ever even made as much as one statement about the explosion.

All this findings reveal that this case is no longer “Spice Bazaar” case; it has already been transformed to “Pınar Selek” case. We all know why Pınar Selek has been chosen as a target. It is because she has been selected as a “victim” in response to the conjuncture of that period and because she absolutely rejected this role right from the start. It is because  she was not for a single moment defeated to the conspiracy into which she was aimed to be prisoned. In all of these years she wrote striking books in the field of sociology, organized numerous social meetings, continued her antimilitarist and feminist studies and activities while also publishing books of tales into which she poured all of her hope and love to human beings. We on the other hand witnessed how she was tried to be sentenced because she did not make concessions when it came to her discourse and her stance.

All the inconsistencies and injusticies that are still persistently carried on, are shaking the gorund of justice that holds us together  as a society and thus they are not only threatening Pınar Selek as an individual but also the social existence of all of us.Therefore we are demanding justice not only for Pınar Selek but for us, too. Our discourse and stance is one and the same with Pınar Selek’s.

We Are Witnessing for Pınar,

We Are Still Waiting For Justice in Turkey

Platform of ‘Still Witnesses’