Casey wants Marc Fogel reclassified as wrongfully detained in Russia
U.S. Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., led a group of senators in asking the U.S. Department of State to reclassify Butler native Marc Fogel as wrongfully detained in Russia.
Fogel, a 61-year-old husband and father of two who lives in Oakmont, Allegheny County, was detained Aug. 14, 2021, after he was found in possession of less than an ounce of medical marijuana. He recently was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Casey and a bipartisan group of senators, including Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., co-authored a letter Tuesday to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on behalf of Fogel.
“Mr. Fogel’s recent 14-year sentence to a maximum-security penal colony for possession of less than an ounce of medical marijuana can only be understood as a political ploy by Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian regime. Mr. Fogel, a 61-year-old with severe medical conditions, has already been detained for a year. The United States cannot stand by as Mr. Fogel wastes away in a Russian hard labor camp,” wrote the senators.
“We strongly urge the State Department to shift its strategy given the realities of Marc Fogel’s situation and act immediately to designate him as ‘wrongfully detained.’ Such a designation will provide the warranted level of support to Marc Fogel's family after a year of communication with Mr. Fogel only via mail and, most importantly, will require the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs to secure Mr. Fogel's freedom. We cannot allow Mr. Fogel to be used as a political pawn by Vladimir Putin.”
The senators’ efforts come after a group of U.S. representatives — including Mike Kelly, R-16th, Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-15th, and Conor Lamb, D-17th — sent a similar letter to Blinken earlier this month.
Kelly and the other representatives, asked Blinken to include Fogel in release negotiations with WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan, who are also detained in Russia. Griner and Whelan have been classified as wrongfully detained.
Fogel’s mother, Malphine Fogel, of Butler, said she supports the effort to have the State Department reclassify her son because it would improve his chances of being released.
“I’m absolutely in favor of it. I’m afraid if he does not get that designation, they’re just going to forget about him,” she said Tuesday. “I think its urgent that he gets reclassified. I think he’ll have a better chance of getting freed.”
She said her son’s case is nearly identical to that of Griner.
“I hope that everyone keeps him in mind. We have to keep his name out there or they’ll forget. We have to depend on other people to keep his name out there,” she said.
Fogel’s sister, Lisa Hyland, of Fox Chapel in Allegheny County, said the family has been asking the State Department to have Fogel reclassified since he was sentenced June 14.
“This is something we’ve been asking for at State Department since he got sentenced. We’ve been reaching to elected officials to help with that process,” Hyland said. “We met with the State Department on more than one occasion. We’ve been writing letters to Secretary Blinken and other members of the State Department to ask for the designation.”
She said the State Department tells the family that the case is being reviewed.
“We haven’t been given any reasons. They say they’re reviewing the case,” Hyland said
She said family members have spoken to Casey and Toomey about her brother’s case.
Hyland said the family plans to present an online petition urging the government to classify Fogel as wrongfully detained to President Joe Biden once 15,000 people sign it.
As of Tuesday evening, the petition on the change.org website had 14,396 signatures.
An international educator for 35 years, Fogel taught history courses at schools attended by children of U.S. diplomats in Colombia, Venezuela, Oman, Malaysia and, for the last 10 years, in Russia.
When he returned to Russia in August 2021 to continue teaching at an Anglo-American school in Moscow, Fogel was detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport for possessing medical marijuana, which was prescribed by a doctor in the U.S. for chronic pain. He is serving his sentence in a maximum-security penal colony.
Fogel has undergone three back surgeries, a spinal fusion, a hip replacement and two knee surgeries that have failed to remedy the pain and left him with a permanent limp. In 2021, a doctor recommended medical marijuana as an opioid alternative to treat his chronic pain, according to the senators’ letter.
Casey and the other senators are asking Blinken to reclassify Fogel under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act.
They said Fogel meets six of the 11 criteria to be designated “wrongfully detained” that are established in the act, including the criterion that his detainment is being used substantially to influence U.S. policy.
The senators also note that Fogel’s “disproportionate” 14-year sentence for possession of 17 grams of marijuana is most comparable to sentences handed down to serious drug traffickers, such as Guido Guillermo Walters, who received 15 years in a Russian prison for the contraband and sale of more than 105,000 grams of cocaine.
Based on the Levinson criteria, Fogel is being held as a political prisoner, thus requiring the reclassification of his case as “wrongfully detained,” according to the senators.
