America’s top diplomat met on 30 March with the wife of US pastor Andrew Brunson, who was jailed in Turkey for nearly six months on undisclosed charges of involvement in a terrorist organisation.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was on a one-day stopover in the Turkish capital Ankara, meeting for the first time with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Mr Brunson’s wife Norine said after the meeting: ‘I do not know what will come of it, considering the sensitive period Turkey is in, but I was grateful for the opportunity.’
She noted that Tillerson said he had been told that an indictment regarding her husband’s case was ‘about to be handed down’.
Neither Brunson nor his Turkish lawyer have been allowed to see any details or evidence of the alleged criminal charges filed against him.
He and his wife had been involved in church work in Turkey for 23 years before they were detained without warning in October last year over an application to renew their residence visas.
