Turkish scholar goes on trial in absentia

Turkish scholar goes on trial in absentia
Turkish sociologist, feminist, and author Pinar Selek poses in Nice, southern France, on March 11, 2023. (AFP/File)
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Updated 29 September 2023
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Turkish scholar goes on trial in absentia

Turkish scholar goes on trial in absentia
  • Selek, now 51, is long since exiled in France
  • The presiding judge told a packed Istanbul courtroom, that the arrest warrant for Selek remained active

ISRANBUL: A Turkish court held another hearing Friday in the trial of sociologist and writer Pinar Selek over a deadly 1998 explosion, as her supporters protested the case against her outside.
Selek, now 51, is long since exiled in France. But the presiding judge told a packed Istanbul courtroom, that the arrest warrant for Selek remained active. He set the next hearing for June 28.
Selek is best known for her research on the Kurdish conflict in Turkiye and her work with street children.
As her supporters demonstrated outside the court, international observers including diplomats and one French lawmaker attended the proceedings inside.
Her defenders argue that the case, which they say is based on little or no solid evidence, has dragged on for too long already.
“We have the feeling that (this case) will never end,” French lawmaker Pascale Martin, told AFP after the hearing. “This pressure has been going on for 25 years, it’s humanly impossible.”
Friday’s hearing was the second in a trial that opened back in March. Selek, who fled Turkiye in 2008, has been cleared of the same charges in four previous trials.
“This dossier is full of fake evidence. There’s not much to say, it’s a very unfair case,” Selek’s father, veteran lawyer Alp Selek told the court.
The case started when her father, who is also her defense lawyer, was 67 years old.
“I am now 90 years old and this case is still dragging,” he said.
French jurists present in the courtroom also came to her defense.
“Pinar Selek has become a symbol of fight for democratic freedom,” lawyer Francoise Cotta told the judge.
She demanded “justice” and asked for her release.
Selek was first arrested in 1998 while studying Turkiye’s Kurdish community, which has faced decades of persecution.
She was accused of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a terror group by Turkiye and its Western allies.
Selek had been interviewing PKK members to find out why they had chosen armed violence. She was jailed after refusing to divulge their names to the police.
She was eventually charged in connection with an explosion at Istanbul’s popular spice market that killed seven people and injured dozens.
Selek was released in 2000 following the publication of a report blaming the blast on a gas leak.
But that was only the start of her legal problems. More trials followed in the highly controversial case.
She settled in Germany after fleeing Turkiye, before relocating to France, where she gained citizenship in 2017.
Selek, who was acquitted four times, in 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2014, now lives and teaches in Nice.
“Life is short, I want to live it well. I don’t want this trial to shape my life,” Selek told AFP in a recent interview.
“They won’t be able to erase my smile or diminish the quality of my thinking,” she said.
Selek faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, a sentence that could keep her from ever returning to Turkiye.
On Tuesday, PEN America, which campaigns for the freedoms of writers, urged the Turkish government to dismiss all charges against Selek.
“The Turkish government’s relentless persecution of Pinar Selek comes from their fear of her ability to amplify marginalized voices through her research on minority rights and Kurdish communities,” said PEN America’s Justin Shildad.


CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman loses nine relatives in Israeli strike on Gaza

CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman loses nine relatives in Israeli strike on Gaza
Updated 22 min 18 sec ago
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CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman loses nine relatives in Israeli strike on Gaza

CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman loses nine relatives in Israeli strike on Gaza
  • Israel resumed combat operations after a seven-day temporary truce with Hamas
  • Dahman’s childhood home in Gaza City has been destroyed in the Israeli offensive

DUBAI: CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman lost nine relatives in an Israeli air strike in northern Gaza, CNN reported.

Dahman had escaped to Egypt with his family, but on Sunday heard news that at least nine family members were killed when the building they were living in Beit Lahia took a direct hit by an Israeli strike.

His uncle, and the uncle’s wife, daughter and two grandchildren, as well as his aunt, her husband and two children perished, while at least two other relatives are in critical condition and others are still buried under the rubble.

Dahman’s childhood home in Gaza City was also destroyed in a separate strike on an adjacent building the same day, CNN reported.

“I will never be able to forget every stone and corner of the house in which I was born and raised and in which my children were born,” Dahman said in the CNN report.

“They were extremely peaceful and simple people, and their entire lives were devoted solely to work and raising their sons and daughters. They have no affiliation with any organization or group… Pray to God to have mercy on them all.”

Dahman’s brother had earlier called to tell him that his home in Gaza City, where he was born and grew up, has been reduced to ruins by the Israeli bombardment.

He had just finished renovating the apartment months before the Hamas attack, and told CNN he had fond memories living there, including celebrating his sons’ birthdays with cake and candles surrounded by family.

“Unfortunately, I left all my memories, my belongings, and the gifts that my bosses sent me at work in this house, all of which were lost under the rubble now.”

Israel’s military resumed combat operations against Hamas in Gaza last week after accusing Hamas of violating a seven-day temporary truce by firing toward Israeli territory.

The seven-day pause, which began on Nov. 24 and was extended twice, had allowed for the exchange of dozens of hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and facilitated the entry of humanitarian aid into the shattered coastal strip.

Israel has sworn to annihilate the Palestinian militant group, which rules Gaza, in response to the Oct. 7 rampage when Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages.


Putin lands in Abu Dhabi on Middle East visit: Russian state media

Putin lands in Abu Dhabi on Middle East visit: Russian state media
Updated 11 sec ago
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Putin lands in Abu Dhabi on Middle East visit: Russian state media

Putin lands in Abu Dhabi on Middle East visit: Russian state media

ABU DHABI: President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday landed in the United Arab Emirates for a rare visit outside the former Soviet Union, Russian state media reported, as Moscow seeks to reassert itself on the global stage.
“Putin’s plane has landed in Abu Dhabi,” the state-run RIA Novosti reported on social media, while Russian state television showed Putin being greeted by officials on the runway.


Iran says it sent a capsule with animals into orbit as it prepares for human missions

Iran says it sent a capsule with animals into orbit as it prepares for human missions
Updated 06 December 2023
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Iran says it sent a capsule with animals into orbit as it prepares for human missions

Iran says it sent a capsule with animals into orbit as it prepares for human missions
TEHRAN, Iran: Iran said Wednesday it sent a capsule into orbit carrying animals as it prepares for human missions in coming years.
A report by the official IRNA news agency quoted Telecommunications Minister Isa Zarepour as saying the capsule was launched 130 kilometers (80 miles) into orbit.
Zarepour said the launch of the 500-kilogram (1,000-pound) capsule is aimed at sending Iranian astronauts to space in coming years. He did not say what kind of animals were in the capsule.
State TV showed footage of a rocket named Salman carrying the capsule into space.
Iran occasionally announces successful launches of satellites and other space crafts. In September, Iran said it sent a data-collecting satellite into space. In 2013, Iran said it sent a monkey into space and returned it successfully.
It says its satellite program is for scientific research and other civilian applications. The US and other Western countries have long been suspicious of the program because the same technology can be used to develop long-range missiles.

Iran Revolutionary Guards seize two vessels smuggling 4.5 million liters of fuel — Tasnim

Iran Revolutionary Guards seize two vessels smuggling 4.5 million liters of fuel — Tasnim
Updated 06 December 2023
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Iran Revolutionary Guards seize two vessels smuggling 4.5 million liters of fuel — Tasnim

Iran Revolutionary Guards seize two vessels smuggling 4.5 million liters of fuel — Tasnim

DUBAI: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Navy have seized two vessels smuggling 4.5 million liters of fuel, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.
Tasnim said 34 foreign crew have been detained by the Guards in the operation.
Iran, which has some of the world’s cheapest fuel prices due to heavy subsidies and the plunge in the value of its national currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling by land to neighboring countries and by sea to Gulf Arab states.


Israel reviewing strike that harmed Lebanese troops, army says

Israel reviewing strike that harmed Lebanese troops, army says
Updated 06 December 2023
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Israel reviewing strike that harmed Lebanese troops, army says

Israel reviewing strike that harmed Lebanese troops, army says
  • Lebanese army say the soldier, a sergeant, was killed when an army position was shelled by Israel on Tuesday

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said on Wednesday it was reviewing a strike that harmed Lebanese troops in south Lebanon, an apparent reference to Israeli shelling that killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded three others the previous day.
“The Lebanese Armed Forces were not the target of the strike. The IDF expresses regret over the incident. The incident is under review,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
Israel and the heavily armed Lebanese group Hezbollah have been exchanging fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border since the start of the war between the Palestinian group Hamas and Israel on Oct. 7.
The Lebanese army said the soldier, a sergeant, was killed when an army position was shelled by Israel on Tuesday.
The Israeli army said its soldiers had acted in “self defense to eliminate an imminent threat that had been identified from Lebanon” from a “known launch area and observation point” used by Hezbollah.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon UNIFIL noted in a statement on Tuesday it was the first Lebanese army soldier killed during the hostilities, and that the Lebanese army had not engaged in conflict with Israel.