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10/15/18

A court in Turkey has released a pastor from North Carolina who'd been held under house arrest. The case of Pastor Andrew Brunson has been a priority of the Trump administration

and the subject of repeated talks and attempted high-level deals between the U. S. and Turkey. Brunson has lived in Turkey for two decades.

And in 2016, he was arrested along with tens of thousands of other people after a coup attempt. He spent most of that time in jail before being allowed house arrest in July.

NPR's Peter Kenyon is in Istanbul. Hi, Peter. Hi, Noel.

All right, so a long case this one. What do we know about Pastor Brunson and the charges against him? Well, he's lived for a long time in Izmir in Western Turkey. He's about 50 years old.

He ran a small evangelical church there. But then, as you noted, in September 2016, he was arrested, charged with aiding terrorist groups,

both Kurdish militants and this cleric that Turkey blames for that 2016 failed coup attempt. There are some who've been arguing that Brunson was basically caught up in this massive purge of Erdogan's suspected enemies - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.

And in fact, he was held at first in jail. And then in this year, he was transferred to house arrest in late July. He's always denied the charges.

There has been speculation that Turkey was hoping to trade Brunson for some Turks being held in U. S. jails. And Washington's been pushing for his release basically ever since he was detained.

What did the court say about why he was being released today? Well, the court actually issued a conviction with a sentence of just over three years.

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