Andrew Brunson

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) expressed disappointment in a Turkish court’s May 7 decision in EPC Teaching Elder Andrew Brunson’s trial on terrorism and espionage charges. After 11 hours of testimony—mostly from anonymous witnesses who testified via video link with disguised faces and altered voices—the judge postponed further proceedings until July 18 and returned Brunson to prison. In addition, the court refused to hear testimony from any defense witnesses.

“We leave the courthouse with serious concerns,” said Sandra Jolley, USCIRF Vice-Chair, who attended the proceedings in Aliaga, Turkey. “Today’s eleven hours of proceedings were dominated by wild conspiracies, tortured logic, and secret witnesses, but no real evidence to speak of. Worse still, the judge’s decision at the conclusion of today’s hearing to dismiss all of the witnesses called by Pastor Brunson’s defense without listening to a single minute of their testimony is simply unconscionable.”

Click here for the Commission’s full statement.

The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission that reviews the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations abroad, and makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress.