Sam Brownback, the ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, has said he believes that Pastor Andrew Brunson will eventually be released by the Turkish government because there is no basis for the charges against him.
In an interview with CBN News, Brownback said that U.S. President Donald Trump is working to secure the pastor's release from prison.
"I do believe Andrew Brunson will be brought home. It doesn't make any sense what the Turkish government is doing. There is no factual basis for these charges," he told CBN News.
Brownback, who attended Brunson's hearing a few weeks ago, said that the pastor's imprisonment is "hurting the relationship between the United States and Turkey."
Brunson, who served as a pastor in Turkey for over two decades, has been accused of taking part in the coup against the Turkish government in July 2016. The charges against the pastor are reportedly based on the testimony of a secret witness. A conviction could result in a 35-year prison sentence for the pastor.
Two hearings on Brunson's case have already taken place and the pastor is expected to appear in court again in July.
On Thursday, Republican Senator James Lankford called on the Turkish government to release Brunson, saying it should "act more like North Korea."
Lankford had apparently been referring to the release of three American prisoners from North Korea earlier this month.
"I said on the Senate floor just last week that I thought that I would never say [this]," the senator said, as reported by The Christian Post.
"I want Turkey to act more like North Korea and actually release our hostages. This is a very odd thing to say to a NATO ally," he added.
The senator described the legal proceedings as a "completely invented kangaroo court," saying that there is no actual eyewitness testimony in the case. He further lamented that the court would not allow Brunson's witnesses to testify at the trial.
Lankford had reportedly sponsored a bill that was aimed at blocking a shipment of a F-35A aircraft to Turkey. The lawmaker from Oklahoma suggested that Brunson's imprisonment was one of the reasons for introducing the measure.
"The United States does not reward hostage-taking of American citizens; such action instead will be met with the kind of punitive measures this bill would enact," Lankford said, according to Newsmax.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has previously hinted that Brunson could be traded for Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based Islamic cleric blamed for the 2016 coup.
In April, 66 U.S. senators signed an open letter to Erdogan saying the indictment against Brunson was "an absurd collection of anonymous accusations, flights of fantasy, and random character assassination."
