President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Turkey for continuing to hold an American citizen working as a Christian pastor in the country, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced Wednesday.
“We’ve seen no evidence that Pastor Brunson has done anything wrong,” Sanders said, adding that the sanctions are actions made from the “president’s direction” and “the Department of the Treasury is sanctioning Turkey’s minister of justice and minister of interior.”
Sanders continued that they would no longer be able to do business with an entity under U.S. jurisdiction.
The official announcement follows a tweet from Trump earlier this week:
The United States will impose large sanctions on Turkey for their long time detainment of Pastor Andrew Brunson, a great Christian, family man and wonderful human being. He is suffering greatly. This innocent man of faith should be released immediately!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2018
Brunson was detained in alleged connection with an attempted coup against Erdogan in 2016. The U.S. government maintains that Brunson is being unfairly treated and used as leverage and should be immediately released.
“Pastor Brunson’s unjust detention and continued prosecution by Turkish officials is simply unacceptable,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a Wednesday statement,” adding “President Trump has made it abundantly clear that the United States expects Turkey to release him immediately.”
“The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action today targeting Turkey’s Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu, both of whom played leading roles in the organizations responsible for the arrest and detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson,” he declared.