Marc Fogel has been detained in Russia since August 2021. U.S. representatives are fighting to have him reclassified as wrongfully detained.

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly has joined other House members who are asking the U.S. State Department why Butler County native Marc Fogel hasn’t been deemed wrongfully detained in Russia.

Kelly, R-16th, is one of eight members of Congress who signed a letter that Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-37th, sent Feb. 15 to Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking why Fogel, who has been detained in Russia for a year and a half, has not been classified as wrongfully detained. Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-15th, also signed the letter.

“We write regarding Pennsylvania resident Marc Fogel, who has been detained in Russia for a year and a half. We have serious and growing concerns that the department has not been able to provide information on why Mr. Fogel has not been classified as ‘wrongfully detained’ under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act and urgently request more information from the State Department regarding his case,” the letter states.

Fogel taught history courses at schools attended by children of U.S. diplomats in Colombia, Venezuela, Oman, Malaysia and Russia. Upon his return to Moscow in August 2021 to continue his decadelong position at an Anglo-American school, Fogel was detained in Sheremetyevo International Airport with slightly more than a half-ounce of medical marijuana, which he was prescribed, according to the letter.

Since his arrest, numerous members of Congress — both Republican and Democrat — in the House and Senate have highlighted this issue for the department and have received no pertinent details from the Bureau of Consular Affairs and the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs,” the letter says.

The House members said in the letter that Fogel may meet six of the 11 established Levison criteria.

The six criteria, according to the letter, are that the individual is being detained solely or substantially because he or she is a United States national; the individual is being detained solely or substantially to influence U.S. government policy or to secure economic or political concessions from the U.S.; the individual is detained in a country where the Department of State has determined in its annual human rights reports that the judicial system is not independent or impartial, is susceptible to corruption, or is incapable of rendering just verdicts; the individual is being detained in inhumane conditions; due process of law has been sufficiently impaired so as to render the detention arbitrary; and U.S. diplomatic engagement is likely necessary to secure the release of the detained individual.

The letter cites the government’s successful effort to secure the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner’s from Russia imprisonment over similar drug charges.

“Although Brittney Griner’s case is nearly identical in certain respects, there is an apparent disparity of treatment between Ms. Griner and Mr. Fogel by the Biden Administration, especially when it comes with the apparent urgency with which the Department briefs the Hill and reaches key decisions internally. The State Department has had ample opportunity to consider the designation of Mr. Fogel and communicate with Congress in a classified setting. And yet, virtually nothing of substance has been shared, and Mr. Fogel still languishes in prison,” the letter says.