By Ashley Murray, States Newsroom
The family of Marc Fogel, an American teacher who is currently imprisoned by the Russian government on marijuana charges, visited the U.S. Capitol Complex Thursday. They pleaded with U.S. officials to keep in mind that Marc Fogel faces a 14-year prison sentence.
Fogel, an experienced history teacher with a 61-year-old international baccalaureate from Pennsylvania, was arrested in August 2021 at the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow. The Russian authorities accused him of carrying cannabis oil cartridges and contact lens cases in his luggage.
According to international media, citing a Russian interior ministry’s statement, he was found guilty in June 2022 of “large-scale drug trafficking” and sentenced.
Fogel is currently serving a sentence in Rybinsk (about six hours north-east of Moscow).
Anne Fogel, Marc’s sister, told States Newsroom on Thursday, outside the Capitol, after a day of meetings with U.S. Senators.
Teaching career of 35 years
Marc Fogel, a 35-year-old teacher, was about to start his final year at the Anglo-American School in Moscow. He had taught abroad for 35 years, including in Malaysia, Mexico and Colombia, Oman and Venezuela, and Russia.
He planned to retire at his home in Oakmont (Pennsylvania), just northeast of Pittsburgh, with Jane.
According to his family, the teacher who turns 62 this month suffers from chronic back pain due to multiple surgeries. He has also had hip replacements, knee surgery, and rotator-cuff surgery. Fogel has a limp because one of his calf muscle atrophied from multiple complications over the years. Fogel used medical marijuana to manage his pain; he refused opioids.
“That’s another birthday he will probably spend in a penal settlement, which makes my very sad,” said Lisa Hyland to States Newsroom over the phone from Ohio Township, Pennsylvania. “I am worried about his health. He wasn’t that healthy at first. “He has chronic pain, and degenerative diseases.”
Anne, a Missoula, Montana resident, and Marc’s child, Ethan met with several legislators on Thursday, including Republican Senator Steve Daines from Montana who shared a picture of the meeting via Twitter.
Daines wrote, “Marc Fogel is wrongfully being held in Russia since the year 2021. I have been working closely with his family to urge the Biden administration escalate efforts to bring Marc Fogel home as quickly as possible.”
Marc Fogel is wrongfully being held in Russia, since 2021. I have been working with the Fogel’s family to urge the Biden administration escalate efforts to return him to the United States as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/GOQcpSDsGV
Steve Daines 13 July 2023 HTML0
The administration has not declared Fogel to be “wrongfully arrested.”
Since over a year, the family and legislators have fought for the special designation which triggers action across all government agencies in order to prioritise the release of an American who is detained abroad.
Friends, former classmates and loved ones will rally in front the White House on Saturday to press the administration to grant the same designation to other Americans imprisoned in Russia, including WNBA star Brittney Grinder, U.S. Marine Veterans Trevor Reed and Paul Whelan, and Russia’s latest American detainee Evan Gershkovich, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Speaking to reporters from Finland, President Joe Biden said he was “serious” about a prisoner swap for Gershkovich’s release.
“I am serious about doing everything we can to release Americans who are illegally being held in Russia, or anywhere else. “That process is already underway,” Biden told reporters at the Helsinki presidential palace during a press conference held with Finland’s president.
Jane and Ethan met on July 6 with White House Chief Staff Jeff Zients, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
Anne Fogel, speaking on behalf of the Fogels, said that administration officials were trying to “manage the expectations” of the family for a release.
Anne stated, “I believe the priority at this time is Evan Gershkovich because Marc has not been ‘wrongfully arrested’.”
The White House has not responded to any of the numerous inquiries about this meeting.
Released: Other Americans who were ‘wrongfully arrested’
Gershkovich was arrested in Yekaterinburg, a steakhouse, by Russian Federal Security Bureau (FSB) agents on March 31st. He, the Wall Street Journal, and the Biden Administration deny the charges.
The Journal’s correspondent could face up to 20-years in prison after the U.S. State Department declared him “wrongfully arrested” on April 10.
In interviews with CBS and MSNBC, on July 11, U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken said that he was “very focused” on Gershkovich’s release as well as Whelan’s release. Whelan had been arrested in Moscow on spies charges in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years of imprisonment in 2020.
Blinken said to CBS Mornings Gayle King, “I am determined to bring Evan, Paul, and others home.” “I don’t have anything to share with you at this time. I can tell you that, in general, even though we have very deep, very profound disagreements with Russia over Ukraine, it doesn’t mean we don’t work to bring back Americans who are unjustly being detained.
Fogel’s punishment is similar to that of Griner, a six-time WNBA All Star and U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist, who was sentenced to nine years in prison by Russian officials for packing cannabis oil vape cartridges into her luggage . She claims they were packed accidentally, but according to media reports, she has maintained.
Griner was arrested in February 2022. This was a week prior to Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine. (Russia occupied Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula by force in 2014). The U.S. State Department declared Griner to be “wrongfully held” and negotiated Griner’s release by December 2022 in exchange for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer convicted of international crimes.
Bout was sentenced to prison in 2012, after revealing to a confidential U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration source years earlier that he planned to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons, including explosives, light aircrafts, hundreds of surface to air missiles, 30,000 AK47 firearms, and 10,000,000 rounds of ammunition, to guerrilla fighters who were planning to use these weapons to attack U.S. Helicopters.
In April 2022 U.S. officials exchanged former Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, a convicted drug smuggler, for Reed. Reed was “wrongfully held” by the U.S. Government after he had been sentenced to 9 years in prison for assaulting 2 Russian police officers, charges he denied.
According to Reed’s family, he was drunk and possibly even drugged during his visit to Russia in August 2020 to see his girlfriend. Reed was taken into police custody by the police when those who were around him called for assistance.
Yaroshenko, convicted in 2011, conspired to transport a part of a cocaine shipment of 4,000 kilograms to the U.S. through Liberia.
The Marc Fogel Act
A bipartisan group of Pennsylvanian representatives in the U.S. House, frustrated by the State Department’s refusal to respond to their requests that Fogel be designated as “wrongfully held,” introduced the Marc Fogel act at the end of June.
The bill would require the State Department, after reviewing evidence regarding Americans held abroad, to report to Congress within 180 calendar days.
Chris Deluzio is a freshman Democratic Rep. who represents Fogel’s district. He said that the bill requires and pushes the State Department into reporting to Congress on these wrongful designations, and why it makes them or doesn’t. In Marc’s case he has not been declared wrongfully detained. This designation is important to our government’s ability to bring someone home.
The law that established the criteria of the special designation, Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act would be amended to include the mandate. The law was named after retired FBI Agent Robert Levinson who is believed to have died while in Iranian custody following his disappearance in 2007
Rep. GOP: “Marc Fogel is wrongfully held because he meets six out of eleven criteria set forth by the Levinson Act.” Guy Reschenthaler, a Pennsylvanian, said the following in a press release upon the introduction of this act. “Since last summer, I’ve urged the State Department that he be classified as wrongfully held and to prioritize his release.”
Fogel was included in a House Resolution in mid-June that called for the immediate release Gershkovich, and Whelan.
The State Department will not comment on legislation that is pending.
The Department of State continuously examines the circumstances surrounding detentions, including those that occur in Russia, to determine if they are illegal. The U.S. Government continues to urge the Russian government, on humanitarian grounds, to release Marc Fogel. We take our commitment to help U.S. Citizens abroad seriously and provide all necessary consular assistance,” said a spokesperson for the State Department.
There is no companion bill in the Senate.
Pennsylvania Pressure
The Senate delegation from Pennsylvania and the House delegation sent numerous letters to the administration during the last Congress as well as this session.
“Mr. Fogel’s recent sentence of 14 years in a maximum security penal colony, for possession of less that an ounce medical marijuana, can only be interpreted as a political maneuver by Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian government. Fogel has been in detention for over a year. He is a 61-year old man with severe medical problems. The United States can’t stand by while Mr. Fogel rots in a Russian labor camp,” wrote Democratic Senator Bob Casey, Pennsylvania along with former GOP senator Pat Toomey.
Other signatories to the letter were Sens. Marco Rubio, Daines, and Jon Tester from Montana, John Hickenlooper, of Colorado, Joe Manchin, Shelley Moore Capito, and Tim Kaine, of Virginia, also signed the letter.
Anne Fogel said that Casey was instrumental in arranging the meetings between Fogel’s family and Congress.
In a press release, John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s first Democratic U.S. Senator said that Fogel’s situation “is not a matter of politics. This is a matter of humanitarianism.”
The statement said that John has worked with his colleagues from the Senate and House to ensure we can bring Marc home as quickly as possible. We are working closely with the State Department in order to ensure that every step possible is taken to release Marc from Russian captivity.
Anne was accompanied by Malphine, Marc’s mother of 94 years, to 14 meetings in May with legislators. In June, Marc’s other child, Sam, as well as Anne’s son, pleaded for the family in 17 meetings.
Anne explained, “We are here to let them know we don’t forget my brother.” “And that my brother needs to be declared as wrongfully held.”
This article was originally published by States Newsroom.
The post Family of American jailed for medical marijuana in Russia Presses Congress and Biden Administration to Help Free Him first appeared on Marijuana moment.
