ICC Note:

With pressure from the United States, Turkey is reported to be thinking about moving up the trial of Pastor Andrew Brunson of North Carolina who has been held in prison since October. It seems as though Turkish officials are using Brunson as a bargaining piece in order to bring a Turkish cleric back to the country to face trial for his alleged corruption of investigations three years ago.

3/22/2017 Turkey (Mission Network News) – Turkey has broken its silence on the Andrew Brunson case. Andrew Brunson, an American pastor, has been imprisoned in Turkey since October 7th on charges of terrorist connections. But, so far, no evidence has been presented except for an anonymous witness. The Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim stated earlier this month that the country may be willing to speed up Brunson’s trial.

The Voice of the Martyrs USA’s Todd Nettleton explains the Prime Minister made this recent comment about Brunson’s case in an interview with an American journalist. “Then interestingly, [Prime Minister Yildirim] switched immediately to the case of Fethullah Gulen, who is a Turkish cleric currently sort of living in exile in the United States. Turkey has asked for his deportation, that he be sent back to Turkey to face trial for, in their estimation, leading or facilitating the coup attempt last summer. The American government has said no, we’re not going to do this. So the Prime Minister of Turkey, talking about Andrew Brunson, immediately switched to Fethullah Gulen, then of course said, ‘Well, I’m not trying to say those two cases are connected.’”

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