Hazardous aspects of sentence imposed on Andrew Brunson

About 3,5 months after the attempted coup d"etat in Turkey on July 15, 2016 the country"s authorities arrested American pastor Andrew Brunson who has for a long time headed Evangelical Church of Sunday in Izmir.

Having taken a foothold, the authorities began threatening a head of the terrorist organization FETÖ Fethullah Gülen currently at the USA and make him extradite to Turkey through "barter" deal. Note that Brunson was charged with collaborating not only with FETÖ but the terrorist organization PKK as well. Attempts were made to substantiate the charge with testimonies of "secret witnesses".

When the Brunson case that has long been in the background in Turkey, unexpectedly emerged full blown in May this year, it transpired that no indictment against Brunson has been drawn up so far.

When a President D. Trump-led pressing campaign against Turkey started demanding to release and return to the USA the evangelical pastor, information got leaked to the press that a secret agreement had been reached between R. Erdogan and D. Trump (the former called the latter "my friend Donald") as follows: Erdogan agreed to release the pastor and Trump - to extradite Hakan Atilla, former deputy director of "Halkbank", to Turkey for servicing a remaining term.

However, as soon as Erdogan"s advisors meant the USA not to include in a new indictment the testimonies of a young entrepreneur from Tabriz, Reza Zarrab who provided the USA with impressive evidence and thus disadvantaged Turkey, "my friend Donald" demanded to release Brunson without any preconditions. In spite of the fact that President Erdogan and his son-in-law, Minister of Finance and Treasury, availing of mid-July tensions, tried to overshadow the oncoming lira devaluation and thus consolidate their supporters, it transpired that the reason of the devaluation lies in Trump"s messages.

Realizing that the continuation of the conflict with the United States is useless, Turkey had first placed the pastor under house arrest on the alleged pretext that he "needed" a home treatment course and then, on October 12, A. Brunson, earlier sentenced to 35 years, was later re-sentenced to 3,5 years, released and sent to the USA by a special aircraft.

It is worth emphasizing that during the last court hearing the so-called "secret eyewitnesses" whom genuine lawyers title as "viruses of the Turkish justice system" fully changed their testimonies following which the sentence failed to mention any "espionage" charges. A statement from the Erdogan"s apparatus said the following: "The courts of Turkey are independent as clearly and unambiguously set forth in Article 138 of the Constitution". It is not hard to imagine how far the international public has been reassured by these allegations.

As a matter of fact, the law in Turkey has lost credibility following the referendum of September 12, 2010 when FETÖ had first consolidated control over police bodies, then prosecution authorities and courts with their countless false indictments and court judgments that shattered confidence in courts. Following 2015, especially after an attempted coup d"etat on July 15, the authorities were successful in carrying on large-scale purging of police, prosecution bodies and courts from FETÖ gangs. However, it is rather difficult to claim it categorically that prosecution and court bodies are not under politicians" control.

An eloquent testimony to the mentioned above is judicial proceedings in regard to the case of American pastor Andrew Brunson. It was no mere coincidence that in the course of his meeting with the pastor President Trump minutely thanked President Erdogan. It is highly questionable that the politics-dependent legal system of Turkey whose economy cannot go into overdrive without foreign investments, would inspire confidence to foreign investors. The first thought that crosses a mind of any foreign investor who arrives in the country with his own capital or project is a degree of court system independence, not authorities-promised incentives.

In spite of pro-governmental mass media allegations about "independence of courts," the Brunson"s case is clearly indicative that the legal system of Turkey is also"monopolized". In the meanwhile, the current situation testifies to the fact that Turkey and Azerbaijan go on approaching each other.