For over five hundred days Turkey hold behind bars the American pastor. Now made by authorities indictment can lead Andrew Brunson to life imprisonment.
We have already reported the details of this trial.
In the indictment of 62 pages Andrew Brunson allegations of military espionage, but also States that he is a member of an armed terrorist group. Prosecutors demand for a 50-year-old pastor, 35 years in prison.
“Turkey actually says that Christianity is terrorism. They have no concrete evidence that pastor Brunson has committed a crime. The fact that he is a Christian and the Christian pastor, they equate terrorism and crime with his hand,” explains Sisi frail, senior counsel of the American center for law and justice.
The American center for law and justice represents the interests of Branson, which for 23 years has served in Turkey as a pastor. He never had problems with the authorities. After a failed coup in 2016, the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan got rid of thousands of their political opponents.
“Pastor Brunson is just one of the Christians who are victims of this cleansing. Most Christian pastors were deported, and the pastor Brunson — no,” says CECE hill.
Last year, Erdogan offered to exchange Branson on exiled Turkish leader Fethullah Gulen. Gulen is accused was the mastermind of a coup. Many people believe Branson pawn in a political standoff between the US and Turkey. In 2017, the White house said that President trump and Vice-President of Pensions at meetings with the President of Turkey three times raised the issue of the plight of pastor Brunson.
“This is really an unprecedented event: the President of the United States mentions this situation every time he talks with the President of Turkey,” says CECE hill.
And Branson, meanwhile, is languishing in a Turkish prison, and last year he missed important events in their family such as the wedding of the daughter. In his last letter He poured out the soul of his wife Noreen: “I am very upset, please pray for me. I love you. Can’t get rid of thoughts that will grow old in this place without you.”
“I think first we need to pray that he had no such mental agony and hesitation, to remain strong and steadfast in the faith, and most importantly — to the day-to-day and he was filled with the peace of God,” commented one of the Christian Ministers. We hid his appearance for his own safety. He heard that Branson continues his life in prison, speaking to people about faith in Jesus Christ.
“I managed to speak with one of our members, each of which was in the same prison with the pastor. He talked about a certain American there who constantly talked about his faith, it was impossible to stop,” he continues.
And on the political front, about half a million people signed a petition for the release of pastor Sconcesnson.
“And this is very important for our human rights work, to show Turkish officials that in fact the whole world is watching this case and demanding the release of pastor Brunson,” says CECE hill.
In fact, this geopolitical confrontation, but this Minister believes that the matter Brunson goes beyond politics, as it was then, when in prison was the Apostle Paul.
“Of course, we are talking not just about him. It’s the whole the work of the Lord in Turkey, about what is happening in the middle East. Judged not only one of Branson. Judge all Christianity. Similarly, Paul was brought to trial for Christianity. He was a symbol of the movement of Jesus Christ at that time. And he stood with his head held high. I think Andrew would behave the same way with dignity,” not discouraged Christian Minister.