This is the fifth episode of a trial that appears to be endless for Pinar Selek. The Turkish sociologist and writer, a refugee in France for fifteen years to escape the judicial harassment that has targeted her in her country for a quarter of a century, is tried again, Friday, March 31, in Istanbul.

Feminist, tireless defender of human rights and minorities, Pinar Selek follows the hearing from the headquarters of the League of Human Rights (LDH) in Paris. The LDH "is the symbolic place of the Dreyfus affair. I wanted to make this bridge between the two histories of my two countries," Pinar Selek said in an interview with France 24 shortly after the hearing opened at 11 GMT.

The 51-year-old researcher, arrested in 1998 for her work on the Kurdish community, was then accused of links with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies) and then of having participated in an "attack" - in reality an accidental explosion that killed seven people in 1998 at the Istanbul spice market.

It is her father, a 93-year-old lawyer, and her sister, who became a lawyer to defend her, who represent her in the presence of an imposing support committee. Referring to his sister, Pinar Selek indicates, in his interview with France 24, that "she is the one who has the rudder of the whole team".

"We are fighting very determinedly"

"This trial, which began before Erdogan came to power and has lasted for 25 years, shows both the continuity of the repressive regime and the new mechanisms of this regime," Pinar Selek said in a recent interview with AFP in Nice, southern France, where she has been teaching sociology since 2016.

After two and a half years in prison, repeatedly convicted and acquitted – in 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2014 – she did not expect her case to return to court once again. But in June last year, the Supreme Court overturned all acquittals and a new international arrest warrant was issued in January, with an immediate jail warrant. This convinced her not to attend this umpteenth hearing that opened on Friday.

"This politico-judicial harassment by the Turkish authorities, which has lasted for 25 years, is part of a context of unprecedented repression targeting all those who defend democracy and the rule of law," Amnesty International said in a statement in support of Pinar Selek.

Less than 50 days before the presidential election, in which President Erdogan, in power for 20 years, will again be a candidate, the sociologist wants to win this endless trial, "for justice first" she says and "for prisoners in Turkey".

"If this trial has been going on for 25 years, it is thanks to our strong struggle" for justice, Pinar Selek told France 24. She adds: "We are really fighting very determinedly."

With AFP

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