ISTANBUL — An American pastor who has been in custody for nearly two years on terror and espionage charges will be put under house arrest as his trial continues, Turkey’s official news agency says.
Anadolu news agency says that Pastor Andrew Craig Brunson, a 50-year-old evangelical pastor from Black Mountain, North Carolina, would be released from a jail in western Turkey and be remanded at his house. It’s not clear when he will be transferred.
Brunson has been in custody since he was arrested in December 2016.
If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison for “committing crimes on behalf of terror groups without being a member,” in reference to outlawed Kurdish militants and the network of a US-based Muslim cleric blamed by Turkish authorities for a failed coup attempt, as well as an additional 20 years for espionage.
Brunson strongly denies the charges.
— AP
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