Turkey vowed Wednesday to retaliate against sanctions imposed just hours before by the Trump administration in response to the ongoing detention of American evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson, who is being tried in that country for terrorism-related charges.
“We strongly protest the sanctions announced by the U.S. Treasury Department,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement, according to the Hurriyet Daily News. “This aggressive stance that does not serve any interest will be retaliated in the same, without delay.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday announced that he had blacklisted Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul using the Global Magnitsky Act, a piece of legislation that arose out of Russian human rights abuses.
“Pastor Brunson’s unjust detention and continued prosecution by Turkish officials is simply unacceptable,” Mnuchin said, per the statement.
“These officials serve as leaders of Turkish government organizations responsible for implementing Turkey’s serious human rights abuses,” the Treasury Department bulletin added.
Tensions between the U.S. and Turkey have escalated in recent months following Brunson’s imprisonment in 2016 as part of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s crackdown on political dissidents after a failed coup.
Trump in July faced heavy criticism from Turkish officials, who claimed the American president was trying to interfere in their judicial system when he tweeted that the Turkish court, which rejected Brunson’s appeal to be released, was “a total disgrace.”
But the appearance that Brunson’s trial is in the hands of an independent judiciary has been questioned, due to suggestions from Erdogan that the 50-year-old missionary from North Carolina be swapped for Fethullah Gulen, a cleric based in Pennsylvania, whom Erdogan accuses of helping to organize the coup attempt.
[Opinion: These Turks are risking everything to resist Erdogan]
