ISTANBUL – Daily News with Radikal
The Supreme Court of Appeals rules that a fatal explosion in Istanbul’s Spice Bazaar was the result of a bomb placed in the market by author and sociologist Pınar Selek, following a decade-long case. Selek, who had been one of the primary suspects in the 1998 blast, argued her innocence
Selek claimed the state wanted to punish her because she was studying the PKK and sought to meet for research purpose with Öcalan.
The Supreme Court of Appeals has ruled that the fatal explosion in 1998 in Istanbul’s Spice Bazaar was the result of a bomb placed in the market by sociologist Pınar Selek, daily Radikal reported Tuesday.
Author and sociologist Selek had long been one of the primary suspects in the blast, which killed seven people and injured 127, and was accused of being a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
Selek argued her innocence and claimed the state wanted to punish her because she was studying the PKK and sought to meet for research purposes with Abdullah Öcalan, the convicted leader of the outlawed group.
The day after the Spice Bazaar blast, media reported that it was the result of a gas explosion. After two days, police reports said there was no trace of a bomb, but 15 people, including Selek, were detained the same day. On the third day after the explosion, it was reported that a bomb had been found in Selek’s Street Kids Art Workshop, where she worked with homeless youth. It was alleged that Selek’s fingerprints were on the bomb, daily Radikal wrote.
Abdülmecit Öztürk, one of the suspects in the case, initially said he and Selek placed the bomb in the Spice Bazaar, a statement he later retracted. A case was opened against all 15 suspects, seeking life sentences for them on charges of trying to foment separatism within the country.
Within four years of the incident, 11 expert reports were written about the cause of the blast, with each contradicting the previous. Four of the reports said the blast was not due to a bomb, two said it was a bomb explosion, two more said it might have been a bomb explosion and the remaining three said the cause of the blast could not be identified.
The most recent of the 11 reports, a Forensic Medicine Institute document dated January 2002, said “an explosion occurred whose origin cannot be determined.”
In May 2008, Selek was acquitted due to lack of evidence. One of the branches of the Supreme Court of Appeals overruled the local court’s decision and asked for Selek to be convicted in the bombing. The prosecutor’s office objected to that decision and said Selek should be convicted only of being a member of the PKK. The general board of the high court heard the case and decided in February that the branch of the high court that had overruled the acquittal and determined Selek should be sentenced to life in prison for fomenting separatism had made the correct decision.
In its decision, the general board of the Supreme Court of Appeals said the air circulation provided by the bazaar’s gates would have been enough to prevent the accumulation of enough gas to cause an explosion. “It must be accepted that the explosion was due to a bomb,” the court said.
The court also concluded that Selek and Öztürk had placed the bomb in response to an order from Berzan Öztürk, who lives abroad.
Selek, who currently lives in Frankfurt, spent 2.5 years detained during the trial. In 2006, many intellectuals and authors started a signature campaign to support her, saying they believed she was innocent.
Speaking to daily Radikal recently, Selek said she is in a kind of exile abroad and tries not to think about the case.
The case against Selek is expected to be heard again by the local court that acquitted her in 2008. If the local court stands by its earlier decision, the general board of the Supreme Court of Appeals will hear the case one more time.
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