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World Watch Monitor
World News

US pastor jailed over terrorism allegations

Rev Andrew Brunson was taken from the Harmandali Detention Centre in Izmir to court for interogation where a Turkish judge sent him to the city's Sakran 3 Nolu T Tipi Prison.

The 48 year old's wife claims he has been accused of having links with the Fetuallah Gulen movement who, according to the Turkish government, instigated a failed military coup on July 15th.

World Watch Monitor, an group reporting on persecuted Christians, says tens of thousands of judges, prosecutors, military personnel, and others have since been suspended or jailed in a crackdown on the coup masterminds and their supporters.

According to World Watch Monitor, a state of emergency powers being enforced until January has give the government a "relatively free rein" to behaviour in a way which appears to "violate the principle of rule of law."

Rev Brunson and his wife, Norine, have lived in Turkey for the past 23 years and currently lead a small Protestant church in Izmir called the Izmir Resurrection Church.

The pair, who have three children currently studying in the US, were detained on 7th October under Interior Ministry deportation orders, before Norine was released twelve days later.

They were summoned to their local police station six months after filing a routine application to renew their residence visas.

Commenting on the case earlier this year, World Watch Monitor said: "The Interior Ministry has issued similar summary deportation orders against expatriate Christians living in Turkey over the past few years."

 
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