13 Oct 2018; DW: US pastor Andrew Brunson left Turkey and touched down at a US airforce base in Germany on his way back to the US. He had spent two years in detention on espionage and terrorism charges.
A Turkish court on Friday sentenced US pastor Andrew Brunson to over three years in jail on a "terror" charge, but said that he would not spend any more time behind bars due to the time he had already spent in custody.
More importantly, the court lifted Brunson's house arrest and travel ban, allowing him to leave Turkey. The charge of espionage was dropped.
He took a military flight from Izmir and arrived in Germany early Saturday on his way back to Washington. US Ambassador Richard Grenell greeted Brunson at Ramstein Air Force Base with a US flag. "When I presented him with the US flag, he immediately kissed it," Grenell wrote on social media.
The 50-year-old US national appeared before court in the western Turkish town of Aliaga on Friday, in the culmination of a widely publicized case that caused a diplomatic row between Washington and Ankara.
As the news of Brunson's release broke, US President Donald Trump tweeted: "PASTOR BRUNSON JUST RELEASED. WILL BE HOME SOON!"
Trump is expected to meet Brunson at the White House on Saturday.
'I'm innocent'
In the trial, the prosecutor had called for a sentence of up to 10 years against the evangelical preacher for alleged links with Kurdish militants and the movement of Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States and Ankara blames from the July 2016 failed coup attempt.
At the same time, however, the prosecution urged the court to lift the measures which kept Brunson under house arrest and stopped him from travel outside Turkey.
In response, Brunson said he should be acquitted. "I'm innocent, I love Jesus, I love Turkey," he said.
Stop in Germany
Brunson returned to his home in Izmir following the Friday ruling. A few hours later, he boarded a US military flight to Germany, from where he is set to continue his journey to the US.
"This is the day our family has been praying for," he said in a statement.
Brunson was greeted by the US ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, upon landing at Ramstein Air Base in western Germany.
"When I presented him with the US flag, he immediately kissed it. #agratefulnation," Grenell wrote on Twitter.
Who is Andrew Brunson?
The evangelical preacher had lived in Turkey for 23 years, serving as pastor at the Izmir Resurrection Church. A married father of three, Brunson was in the process of applying for permanent residency in Turkey when he was arrested on October 7, 2016 along with his wife Norine, though she was released 13 days later. After much diplomatic wrangling with Washington, Brunson was allowed to leave pre-trial detention and go into house arrest in July 2018.
Brunson was charged with "committing crimes on behalf of terror groups without being a member," and espionage, facing up to 35 years in prison.
Why is he important?
The imprisonment of Brunson further complicated the already-tense relationship between NATO allies Turkey and the US. After Brunson's imprisonment, President Trump sanctioned Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu.
Erdogan had vowed not to be swayed by sanctions.
Ahead of the Friday verdict, some US media reported of a "secret deal" between Washington and Ankara that would see Brunson released in exchange for some concessions to Turkey. The deal may include reduced penalties on Turkish state-owned Halkbank for Iran sanctions busting and the release to house arrest in Turkey of Halkbank executive Mehmet Hakan Atilla, who was convicted in a US court earlier this year for sanctions evasion.
Aside from his importance in US-Turkey relations, Brunson has become emblematic of the sweeping crackdown Erdogan's government has launched in the wake of the coup. The government has imprisoned or sacked tens of thousands of opposition voices in journalism, education, and the civil service.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Turkey to free "quickly" other Americans in detention.
"The world should know that (Trump and the State Department) continue to work hard to bring home all American hostages and those wrongfully imprisoned and detained," Pompeo tweeted.
NASA scientist Serkan Golge, a dual US-Turkish national, is serving a five year sentence after being convicted on terror charges.
What's next for the US and Turkey?
After Brunson's release, an aide for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the ruling showed that courts in Turkey are "impartial and independent."
"We would like to remind Donald Trump once again that Turkey is a democratic country under the rule of law, and that Turkish courts are independent." said Fahrettin Altun, who serves as Erdogan's communication's director. "Like the Turkish courts, the Republic of Turkey does not receive instructions from any body, authority, office or person."
Speaking to DW, Sinan Ulgen from the Istanbul-based Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies think tank said that the US would likely end the sanctions it had imposed over Brunson.
"I think there will be some improvements in the short term, given that this was the most poisonous issue bedeviling the relationship," he said.
However, Turkey and the US face still other "important outstanding issues that will continue to weigh heavily" on their ties, according to Ulgen. Washington and Ankara are still at odds on sanctions against Iran, Turkey's purchase of Russia's S-400 missile defense system and American support for Syrian Kurdish forces.
Even with Brunson's release, "an overall improvement would need additional steps," he told DW.
