U.S. citizen Andrew Brunson has been indicted in Turkey and is facing a 35-year sentence.

In the United States, a 35-year sentence generally speaking involves serious crimes with intent to harm.

• Premeditated murder, especially of children or other vulnerable individuals
• Premeditated murder of multiple people
• Embezzlement or fraud on a large scale, such as Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

Welcome to the Kafkaesque world of the new Turkey.

Brunson languished in a Turkish prison for over a year before he was even formally charged. In March, the prosecution made it plain that they are seeking a life sentence for Brunson, and in April the prosecution released a document meant to bolster the claim that Brunson was a threat to the security of the nation.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), has translated this document into English. It is a rambling and incoherent mess, but the gist of it is that Brunson has been “Christianizing” the nation. The indictment also accuses Brunson of being part of a larger American goal to bring down Turkey and initiate a world war with Islam. No actions of Brunson support this claim. Instead, the document cites Protestants in America who intensely desire a final confrontation between Islam and the West.

And that’s it. That’s the evidence in the 61-page indictment. What did Brunson do? When and where did he do it? How was it carried out? The very basic information in a standard police report is missing here.

This is projection of the highest order. It is Erdogan and his courts that are proselytizing. At last count, Christians made up less than 0.2% of the population. The threat is not from the Christian population but from the Sunni majority that seeks to get rid of them and anyone else who is not Sunni.

Proselytizing on the streets of Turkey is not allowed, but who knew that proselytizing within a church is also a crime now in Turkey?

The freedom of religion guaranteed by the Ataturk constitution not only does not extend to Brunson’s church, but this indictment seems to indicate that in the new Turkey discussing Jesus within a church is a crime equal to murder. Brunson’s 35-year sentence has made it clearer that the new Turkey is an entirely different animal, and churches, both those with tiny congregations and those in existence for hundreds of years, are all committing the crime of “Christianization.”

Here are the facts we know about Brunson:

1. He’s a devout Christian.
2. He leads a congregation of about 25 people in the coastal city of Izmir, Turkey.
3. He has been living in Turkey for 23 years and he has raised his children there.
4. He was applying to renew his permanent residency visa when he was taken in for questioning and then imprisoned.

If the courts had any real evidence against Brunson, they would have released it by now. Instead, they make predictable but implausible charges of him being a spy for Turkish exile Fethullah Gulen. Then, when those don’t stick, the prosecution decided to openly charge Brunson of being a Christian and wanting to grow his congregation in Turkey.

Through Pastor Brunson’s case, Americans are learning that our American passports mean little in Turkey. Christian Americans living in Turkey are held in the same contempt as Christian Turks. Even the tweets of President Trump will not change the minds of Erdogan’s henchmen. They are making fools of themselves, exposing their sordid justice system of secret witnesses, unsubstantiated allegations, and a system rigged to view only Sunnis as worthy of a fair hearing.  It’s just too bad that their prideful display will make an innocent man suffer.