The Washington measure responds to Ankara’s refusal to release US pastor Andrew Brunson, who is being held in Turkey.
The two Turkish ministers affected by the sanctions are Abdülhamit Gül (left), responsible for Justice, and Suleyman Soylu (right), who heads the Interior portfolio
The United States Government. announced on Wednesday (01.08.2018) the imposition of economic sanctions against Turkish justice ministers Abdülhamit Gül and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu for their role in the arrest in Turkey of the American Protestant pastor Andrew Brunson.
“The unjust detention of Pastor Brunson and his continued prosecution is simply unacceptable,” said Sarah Sanders, White House spokeswoman, reporting the sanctions at a press conference, in which she reiterated the demand for her release.
Relations between Turkey and the US they go through moments of tension due to the situation of Brunson, arrested in October 2016 accused of terrorism, a charge that the religious denies, and currently under house arrest awaiting trial.
In addition, Washington accused Gül and Soylu of “serious human rights abuses”.
As a result of the sanctions are frozen assets that the two government ministers of the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, may have under US jurisdiction and it is prohibited to conduct financial transactions with them to entities in the country, said the Treasury Department. Sanders explained that the US president, Donald Trump, has taken the issue of Brunson “on several occasions” with Erdogan and that “he is not” happy with the decision not to release him. “
Turkey accuses him of supposed ties with the PKK and Gülen
The Turkish Prosecutor’s Office is seeking up to 20 years in prison for the American pastor, considering that he has links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Kurdish separatist guerrilla group in Turkey, and that he is also linked to the network of the Islamist preacher Fethullah. Gülen, exiled in the USA, to which Ankara attributes the failed coup d’état of 2016.
The tensions between the two NATO allies have also increased due to the refusal of the US Justice. to extradite Gülen for lack of conclusive evidence about his participation in the failed coup in Turkey.
Erdogan denied this week that Turkey considers Brunson a bargaining chip, even though he himself suggested last year the possibility of “exchanging one pastor for another,” in reference to the Islamist cleric Gülen.
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