A Turkish judge sent Rev Andrew Brunson to prison in Izmir on Friday, 64 days after the US pastor and his wife, Norine, were detained under Interior Ministry deportation orders.
Although his wife was released on 19th October and given an extended permit to remain in the country, Andrew Brunson has been held since 20th October at the Harmandali Detention Centre on the northern edge of Izmir.
The 48-year-old was transferred overnight on 8th December to a counter-terrorism centre, before being brought before an Izmir court on 9th December for interrogation.
The American Protestant heard today for the first time the allegations filed against him, which apparently prompted his arrest and lengthy detention. According to the officiating judge, the “terrorism” charges came from a “secret informant”. The court ruled that the files on Brunson’s case would continue to remain inaccessible to his lawyer, who had not been allowed to meet him until today’s hearing.
According to Norine Brunson, the lawyer confirmed that her husband was accused of links with the Fetullah Gulen movement, which is accused by Ankara of instigating a failed military coup against the Turkish government on 15th July. The pastor is now incarcerated at Izmir’s Sakran 3 Nolu T Tipi Prison.
In a wide-ranging crackdown to identify and prosecute the suspected coup plotters and their sympathisers, with the intention to prosecute them as “terrorists”, the Turkish authorities have suspended or jailed tens of thousands of judges, prosecutors, military personnel, journalists and educators on terrorism charges over the past five months.
Brunson and his wife, who have three children now studying in the US, have lived in Turkey for the past 23 years.
