Six US senators introduced a bipartisan legislation on Thursday to restrict loans from international financial institutions to Turkey “until the Turkish government ends the unjust detention of US citizens,” a senate committee statement said, according to a report by Reuters.
A Turkish court on Wednesday ruled to keep in custody American pastor Andrew Brunson, who was jailed in October 2016 in Turkey on espionage and terror charges, setting the next hearing for Oct. 12. The case that has deepened a rift with NATO ally Washington.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to release Pastor Brunson calling his continued detention a “total disgrace.”
“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!” Trump tweeted.
The bill, dubbed the Turkey International Financial Institutions Act, directs the U.S. executive of the World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to oppose future loans, except for humanitarian purposes, to Turkey, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations statement said.
It said the opposition should continue until Turkey is “no longer arbitrarily detaining or denying freedom of movement to United States citizens (including dual citizens) or locally employed staff members of the United States mission to Turkey.”
Turkish prosecutors accuse Brunson, a Christian pastor from North Carolina who has lived in Turkey for more than two decades, of activities on behalf of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as well as the group inspired by US-based preacher Fethullah Gülen, accused by the Turkish government of orchestrating a July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. The Gülen movement strongly denies any involvement in the abortive putsch.
Brunson, who denies the charges, faces up to 35 years in jail if found guilty. The United States and Turkey have been formal military allies since Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1952.
Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15. On December 13, 2017 the Justice Ministry announced that 169,013 people have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup.
Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced on April 18, 2018 that the Turkish government had jailed 77,081 people between July 15, 2016 and April 11, 2018 over alleged links to the Gülen movement.
The post US senators introduce bill demanding Turkey end ‘unjust’ detention of Brunson appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/us-senators-introduce-bill-demanding-turkey-end-unjust-detention-of-brunson/
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