Turkey, however, refused to comply. The Trump administration followed through on its threat and hit Turkish Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu with sanctions for being leaders “of an entity that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, serious human rights abuse.”
The two ministers will have any assets and properties under U.S. jurisdiction blocked and U.S. persons will be prohibited from engaging in financial transactions with the ministers, CNN reported.
In the
news release announcing the sanctions, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin called Brunson’s detention “unjust” and “simply unacceptable.”
He added, “President Trump has made it abundantly clear that the United States expects Turkey to release him immediately.”
In a news conference on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders stressed that the administration found Brunson’s imprisonment to be “unfair and unjust” and that it saw “no evidence that Pastor Brunson has done anything wrong.”