Reasoned Decision on Selek Case Receives Criticism

Istanbul 12th High Criminal Court distributed its 407-page “Reasoned Decision,” which outlined its case on Pınar Selek. Despite chief judge's negative clause, the court ruled that 1998 Spice Bazaar Blast was due to bombing.

"The court has yet to officially mail the reasoned decision to us. But we heard everything through the media," Seyda Selek, one of Pınar Selek’s defense attorneys.

"The court reached a verdict departing from baseless accusations and testimonies taken under torture. They can't definitively prove that there is bombing involved in the explosion. They order life sentence on the 'possibility' of bombing. The process constantly repeats itself, but they launch it as something new every single time. They literally mix up all the official documents and commit verbal distortion. It feels terrible when people of law do this. But they couldn't have ordered a life sentence otherwise."

Attorney Seyda Selek continued that they are to take the case to Appeals Court High Chamber as the next step.

"And if we don't get what we want from there, we will take the case to ECHR. We clearly know that we are going to win one day. Because we are right. It has been 15 years. Even if Pınar Selek gets acquitted one day, we can't say that justice will completely be there. But for the time being, we only wish to see her get rid of this trial and work as sociologist in Turkey again," she said.

Hala Tanığız (We are still witnesses) Platform released a statement, expressing its frustration on the reasoned court decision.

"Not only that we have witnessed a court appealing its own case for the first time in law history, but also we are so frustrated that Selek received life sentence again. The trial process is highly controversial and one of the panel judges already put a clause on the reasoned decision to contest it. We are once back in our 15 year old nightmare," the statement said.

Objector clause by judge

"The examination of evidences demonstrates that the 1998 Spice Bazaar Blast was not due to a gas leak. It was caused by a bomb," the reasoned decision said.

Vedat Yılmazabdurrahmanoğlu, the panel judge in charge of Selek's case, objected the decision, saying that the evidence did not fully support this claim. JudgeYılmazabdurrahmanoğlu added an objector clause into the reasoned decision.

In his 3 page long clause, the judge said: "It was unclear that the explosion was due to a bomb. No precise and credible evidence supports that convict Pınar Selek might have committed the crime." (ÇT/BM)

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