The 43-year-old Pinar Selek, known for her critical studies of the Kurdish conflict in Turkey and work with street children, was accused of bombing a spice market popular with tourists in Istanbul.

A Turkish court on Friday acquitted Turkish dissident sociologist Pinar Selek, who has taken refuge in France, over a 1998 explosion that killed seven people, the official Anatolia news agency reported.

The ruling — delivered by a high criminal court in Istanbul — came at a hearing on Selek’s retrial after a life sentence for her alleged involvement in the deadly explosion was overturned this year, according to Anatolia.

The 43-year-old Selek, known for her critical studies of the Kurdish conflict in Turkey and work with street children, was accused of bombing a spice market popular with tourists in Istanbul.

Selek was arrested and jailed aged 27 on charges of involvement in the explosion after she refused to give police the names of rebels she had met during her research.

She was freed in 2000 after the publication of a report blaming the explosion on a gas leak.

The latest verdict marks her fourth acquittal by Turkish courts. The previous acquittals were based on the primary witness’s retraction of his testimony and a lack of evidence that the blast was a bomb attack.

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