This op-ed was originally published by the Wall Street Journal on Jul9 19, 2018.

By former USCIRF Commissioner Kristina Arriaga

President Trump tweeted Wednesday evening: “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.” He called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to free the North Carolina native, who has spent more than 600 days behind bars.

Mr. Brunson, a Presbyterian minister, stands accused of aiding the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a militant terrorist group known by the initials PKK, and supporting Mr. Erdogan’s exiled rival, Fethullah Gülen. The prosecution is calling for 35 years in prison. For the 50-year-old American, who has spent 23 years leading a church in Turkey, that’s effectively a life sentence.

The ordeal started in October 2016. Mr. Brunson received a notice to appear at the local police station in Izmir. He did and hasn’t been home since. After 13 days in detention, authorities placed him in an overcrowded prison cell, where he stayed for several months before he was moved to a more humane cell with only one roommate. He spent more than a year without being charged. Meantime, the government-controlled press ran absurd accounts about his supposed involvement in the 2016 coup attempt against Mr. Erdogan.

American officials started questioning the pastor’s arrest, but Turkey denied the detention had anything to do with his Christianity. Yet in the 62-page indictment, which the prosecution leaked to the press before presenting it to Mr. Brunson’s lawyer, the government alleges that his pastoring had the effect of “dividing and separating [Turkey], by means of Christianization.” The government also alleged that Gülenists and the PKK “misuse persons’ religious beliefs and try to create a synergy that poses a threat to their own government.”

Since the indictment, the government has held three hearings—each more bizarre than the last. Most of the evidence is based on secret testimony obtained by the government. Wednesday’s hearing in Izmir, which I attended, proved as preposterous as the others.

Three judges sat on a raised wood-paneled dais. At a lower level, Mr. Brunson’s attorney stood behind a fixed podium. Witnesses were placed across from the attorney. Sitting on a row of fixed chairs sat Mr. Brunson, who has lost 50 pounds while imprisoned. Behind him, among hundreds of empty chairs, five policemen idled. On the opposite side of the court, Mr. Brunson’s wife watched quietly. She was surrounded by fellow Christian pastors, friends, foreign and local press, and U.S. diplomatic officers.

The judges allowed a single witness for the defense to speak. This was a “concession,” as they had previously said only prosecution witnesses could testify. The judges aided the prosecution witnesses’ recollections by reminding them of their written testimony. When a judge asked one of the witnesses about the names of people involved in activities against Turkey, the witness replied that while he didn’t remember now, he might remember later. The judge accepted this reply.

For two hours the pastor sat straight, serenely listening to people claiming to be members of his church, saying he provided Bibles in Kurdish and kept a map of Kurdistan. None of the judges asked to see evidence, and none was presented.

At noon, a judge asked Mr. Brunson to speak. He replied in Turkish: “My faith teaches me to forgive. I forgive those who testified against me.” The judge loudly objected to this mention of faith and admonished Mr. Brunson to speak on the facts only. The pastor added later: “None of the witnesses heard from my mouth a word that was sympathetic with the PKK.” At the end, a judge announced the next hearing would take place in October.

Mr. Trump’s tweet wasn’t the first plea for Mr. Brunson’s freedom. The White House, the secretary of state and several senators have worked for his release. Last month Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jeanne Shaheen visited Mr. Erdogan and asked him to free the pastor. The Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act calls for the U.S. government not to sell F-35 jets to Turkey unless Mr. Brunson is released. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention recently agreed to take the case. Yet Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally, won’t budge.

Ankara responded to the president’s tweet, claiming that the “Brunson case is a legal process” and “Turkey is a state of law.” This simply isn’t true. Since the coup attempt, Mr. Erdogan has initiated a rapid crackdown on civil liberties, religious freedom among them. Turkey’s Constitution provides for freedom of belief and worship, along with the personal right to share religious ideas.

But as Mr. Brunson’s case shows, religious freedom has become a nominal right in Turkey. Such a blatant contradiction between Turkey’s Constitution and its conduct should give pause to anyone considering traveling to or doing business in Turkey.

Ms. Arriaga is vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

This op-ed originally appeared in Religion News Service on July 24, 2018.

By Gayle Manchin and Johnnie Moore

(RNS) - This week, as hundreds of religious leaders, nonprofit heads and government officials gather in Washington for the State Department's first-ever ministerial on religious freedom, an election about to take place in Pakistan shows why the cause of religious freedom is as important as it has ever been in modern history.

For Pakistan’s Christians and minority Ahmadi Muslims, the run-up to Wednesday’s (July 25) vote has been terrifying. New hard-line Islamist political parties, such as the Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek and the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, have risen, focusing on denigrating the Ahmadis.

Last November, the TLP organized a violent protest that called for Ahmadi Muslims to be removed from high positions in Pakistani society, and demanded that a list be created of all Ahmadi Muslims working in the government. Ahmadis have long been subject to targeted killings, bomb attacks and vigilante violence, and the prospect of being publicly identified cast an even darker shadow over the community’s future

This kind of harassment is not isolated to extremist political parties. Earlier this month, Imran Khan, the celebrated cricketer and the establishment Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s candidate for prime minister, announced his support for controversial blasphemy laws, which have long been used to target and punish religious minorities. Khan’s hard-line approach has further marginalized religious minority communities.

Meanwhile, on July 4, the Islamabad High Court ruled that citizens must declare their faith when applying for any government-issued identification, a necessity for government employment. By stating that all citizens “have a right to know the religious beliefs of civil servants,” the IHC has laid the path for extremist groups to physically target and eliminate anyone who doesn’t fall in line with the political establishment’s ideology.

The Federal Minister for Information appealed the court’s decision, but when Pakistan’s most popular leaders and highest courts signal that certain religious communities are second-class citizens, the damage has already been done.

Take, for example, an attack on the 100-year-old historic Ahmadi mosque in Sialkot in May. Though the Ahmadi community was granted permission to make renovations, a mob attacked the mosque and the historical residence of the faith’s founder under the eye of the municipal authorities. The mob was allegedly led by Hafiz Hamid Raza, who is affiliated with Khan’s PTI.

Despite widespread international condemnation, a resolution in Pakistan’s Sindh province condemning the attack was rejected by legislators. The participation of a political leader in the attack on the mosque and the subsequent refusal to denounce such acts by a provincial assembly affirm that the Pakistani state is itself a major part of the problem.

As a consequence of the increasing discrimination, incitement and violence targeting Ahmadis, the community has decided to boycott the elections entirely out of fear that its members may be attacked.

Similar examples could be drawn from Pakistan’s Christian community, whose citizens have been frequently, unjustly imprisoned without proper due process and whose churches have been regularly attacked by extremists to the neglect of the nation’s security forces.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, on which we both serve, has also been monitoring alarming efforts within Pakistan’s military establishment to encourage politicians to stoke interreligious hate and violence in order to gain campaign funding and electoral support from religiously intolerant voters.

Pakistan’s decline has been consistent and entirely predictable. Every year since 2002, USCIRF has recommended to the State Department that Pakistan be designated a “country of particular concern” due to “ongoing, systematic, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

The international community and the U.S. government must put unrelenting pressure on whoever wins Wednesday’s election to immediately stop the harassment of the country’s religious minorities. The State Department should work collaboratively with its European partners, including the European Union and United Kingdom, to put Pakistan on notice that its failure to address these concerns will impact aid and trade.

Without sustained pressure from the U.S. and international community, the already dwindling population of religious minorities in Pakistan will soon face an existential threat.

The shame of our world’s record on religious freedom is that the story of any of a dozen minority groups could be told just by changing the names and country in this article. In a dozen more, the situation has so degraded that the persecuted minorities would like nothing more than to be in the situation of the Christians and Ahmadis in Pakistan today.

The success of this week’s ministerial will be determined not by the quality of sentiments shared by those present but by the strategic change made because of it. All eyes will be on Pakistan as the first of many places in which much must be done, fast.

(The Rev. Johnnie Moore, as a commissioner, and Gayle C. Manchin, as a vice chair, serve on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily represent those of Religion News Service.)
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18, 2018

Pastor Andrew Brunson Returned to Turkish Prison

“The government of Turkey continues to make a mockery of justice in its treatment of Pastor Brunson,” said USCIRF Vice Chair Kristina Arriaga

WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today condemned a Turkish court’s decision to return Pastor Andrew Brunson, an American citizen and leader of a small Protestant Christian church, to prison to await a fourth hearing on October 12, 2018. Pastor Brunson has been unjustly detained in Turkey since October 7, 2016 on false terrorism and espionage related charges. USCIRF Vice Chair Kristina Arriaga attended today’s hearing in Aliaga, Turkey. USCIRF has condemned the charges against Pastor Brunson and has called for his immediate release.

“The government of Turkey continues to make a mockery of justice in its treatment of Pastor Brunson,” said Vice Chair Arriaga. “Today I was hoping to see the judge order his complete release and put an end to the miscarriage of justice that Pastor Brunson’s entire case represents. Turkish authorities still have not provided one good reason for depriving Pastor Brunson of his liberties. The Trump Administration and the Congress should continue to apply pressure, including using targeted sanctions against officials connected to this case, until Pastor Brunson is released.”

For nearly two hours during the hearing, former church members testified against Pastor Brunson, making vague, unsubstantiated accusations.  When the judge asked Brunson to reply to the witnesses, he said: "My faith teaches me to forgive, so I forgive those who testified against me." Only one witness from the defense was allowed to testify.

After having lived and worked in Turkey for over 22 years, Pastor Brunson was initially detained almost two years ago and accused of membership in an armed terrorist organization. On March 13^th of this year, Turkish prosecutors indicted Pastor Brunson on terrorism and espionage related charges, seeking a sentence of up to 35 years’ imprisonment. His first hearing took place on April 16 and his second hearing took place on May 7.

High-level U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, have called for Pastor Brunson’s release. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently spoke about the ongoing detention of American citizens, including Pastor Brunson, in Turkey.  

On October 5, 2017, USCIRF Vice Chair Kristina Arriaga and then USCIRF Vice Chair Sandra Jolley were granted access to Kiriklar Prison in Izmir, Turkey and allowed to visit with Pastor Brunson. They were his first visitors outside of family, legal counsel, and U.S. embassy officials. They described their visit in an opinion editorial for Religion News Service, which can be found here.

In 2018, USCIRF placed Turkey on its Tier 2 list of countries noted for violations of religious freedom and began advocating for Pastor Brunson as a part of its Religious Prisoners of Conscience Project.  

For more information, see USCIRF’s 2018 annual report chapter on Turkey.

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission, the first of its kind in the world. USCIRF reviews the facts and circumstances of religious freedom violations abroad and makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the Congressional leadership of both political parties. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or Isaac Six, Director of Congressional Affairs and Communications ([email protected] +1-202-786-0606).