A U.S. official said Friday that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with the wife of a jailed American pastor in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday night, NBC News reported.
"Secretary of State Tillerson wanted to make sure he met with [Norine] Brunson to share the more recent informaiton he had on [Andrew] Brunson's case," the official said.
Pastor Brunson and his wife were initially detained in Turkey on immigration violation charges in the beginning of October, and Norine was released later that month, according to news reports. Andrew has since been held in Turkey on charges of being part of a terrorist organization, a group Turkish media said is associated with an attempted coup in the country last July.
Tillerson was in Ankara to meet with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and other government officials.