Last night on Twitter Trump demanded that Erdogan return pastor Andrew Brunson, telling him he’s done nothing wrong and that his family needs him:
A total disgrace that Turkey will not release a respected U.S. Pastor, Andrew Brunson, from prison. He has been held hostage far too long. @RT_Erdogan should do something to free this wonderful Christian husband & father. He has done nothing wrong, and his family needs him!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2018
Erdogan has said in the past that he’ll be glad to release Brunson if Trump would extradite Fethullah Gülen to Turkey. Thankfully, the US hasn’t show any inclination to do that.
Congress has tried to pressure Erdogan to release Brunson as well…
The U.S. Senate passed a bill last month including a measure that prohibits Turkey from buying F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets because of Brunson’s imprisonment and Turkey’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 air defense system.
As far as Brunson goes, the courts over there are dragging their feet with hearing after hearing while he remains in jail:
On July 18, a court in Turkey’s Aegean province of İzmir ruled that Brunson, an American pastor being tried on terrorism and spying charges, will be kept in jail pending trial.
The Second High Penal Court in İzmir decided to continue listening to the testimonies of witnesses in the next hearing on Oct. 12.
It’s really an outrage that Brunson is in jail at all. He was arrested in the months after the phony 2016 coup and it was aa clear then as it is now that he was only arrested to use as leverage to get Gülen back. Trump is right that he’s done nothing wrong, and I hope Trump can find a way to increase the pressure on him to finally get Brunson back once and for all.