- After the decisions of acquittal given four times about Pınar Selek were overturned by the Court of Cassation, in the case seen again the court decided for the continuation of detention in absentia.
- The hearing was postponed this time as well to Sept. 18 due to a change of the panel.
İstanbul — The hearing of the case in which sociologist and writer Pınar Selek, who was acquitted four times in the case related to the Egyptian Bazaar explosion, is being tried again following the overturning decisions of the Court of Cassation, was held at the Istanbul 15th High Criminal Court.
A delegation coming from abroad also followed the hearing. At the hearing, a written information note prepared by Florence Boyer, director of the URMIS (Unité de Recherche Migrations et Société) research laboratory in France, of which Selek has been a member since 2015, was presented to the court.
In the note, it was stated that Selek completed her “state thesis” in France and received the title of professor in the field of sociology. It was conveyed that the thesis defense held on Jan. 27 at Paris 8 University was evaluated by a jury consisting of six professors and lasted approximately four and a half hours.
It was expressed that Selek’s thesis work, consisting of four volumes, includes published works, a comprehensive evaluation report and a previously unpublished research. It was recorded that her work contributed to the sociology literature.
One of Selek’s lawyers, Akın Atalay, also stated that the fieldwork conducted between 1996–1998 on Kurdish social movements was turned into a book in 2026 by Paris Cité University.
The court ruled that procedural deficiencies regarding the taking of Selek’s statement were not completed and decided for the continuation of the detention decision given in her absence. The requests of the lawyers for the lifting of the detention and capture decisions were rejected.
The hearing was postponed this time as well to Sept. 18, 2026 due to a change of the panel.
What happened?
Pınar Selek has been on trial for a quarter century in the case related to the explosion that occurred on July 9, 1998 at the Egyptian Bazaar in Istanbul. In the explosion, seven people lost their lives and 127 people were injured. In the first examinations, findings were put forward indicating that the explosion was caused by a gas leak, and no finding of a bomb was encountered in crime scene reports.
Selek was taken into custody two days after the incident and was arrested on the charge of “membership in an organization.” The main basis of the accusations against her was a witness statement that later said it had been taken under torture. During the trial process, numerous expert reports revealed that the explosion was caused not by a bomb but by a gas leak.
Selek was released after remaining in detention for 2.5 years. She was acquitted four times in 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2014. Despite this, the Court of Cassation overturned the decisions and the case was seen again. In 2013, a sentence of aggravated life imprisonment was given; this decision was also overturned.
After the overturning decision given by the General Criminal Assembly of the Court of Cassation in 2022, Selek began to be tried for the sixth time. The case continues as one of the longest-running trials in Turkey.
