U.S. pastor in Turkey under house arrest

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 said Wednesday.

Anadolu news agency said 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 due to Brunson’s “health problems.” The report did not give details about the health problems and it’s not clear when he will be transferred.

The case has strained ties between NATO allies Turkey and the United States. President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded Brunson’s release and called it “a total disgrace” he is being held.

A court in western Izmir province said Brunson would be electronically monitored and barred from leaving his house. He cannot leave the country.

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 U.S.-based Muslim cleric blamed for a failed coup attempt, as well as an additional 20 years for espionage. Brunson strongly denies the charges.

Brunson’s case was among issues Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed by telephone earlier.

Erdogan has previously linked Brunson’s return to the U.S. to the extradition of cleric Fethullah Gulen.

At the end of a recent hearing, the court inside a prison complex in the town of Aliaga in western Turkey rejected Brunson’s lawyer’s request that he be freed pending the outcome of the trial.

The case was adjourned until Oct. 12.