Who is Marc Fogel? Here’s what to know about the imprisoned school teacher with Pennsylvania ties.

News that American journalist Evan Gershkovich and U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were part of a major multi-country prisoner swap involving two dozen people in seven different countries has sparked a push among Pennsylvania lawmakers for school teacher Marc Fogel to be included in negotiations.

In a statement, a bipartisan group of Pennsylvania senators and representatives called for Fogel’s return.

» READ MORE: Journalist Evan Gershkovich part of multi-country prison swap

Fogel has been imprisoned in Russia for three years but was not released as part of Thursday’s swap.

Here’s what to know about Fogel.

Marc Fogel is a school teacher who originally hails from Butler County, Pa., and most recently lived in Oakmont, Allegheny County, with his wife, Jane Fogel.

He’s a longtime educator who attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania and taught history in international schools across Colombia, Malaysia, Oman, and Venezuela. He turned 63 on Sunday while imprisoned, public records show.

Fogel had been living and working in Russia since 2012. He’s a former U.S. Embassy employee in Moscow. At the time of his arrest, he was teaching at the Anglo-American School of Moscow.

Personal accounts refer to Fogel as a personable, athletic, and sometimes silly man with a strong “wanderlust” for traveling and adventures, the Washington Post reports.

In August 2021, Russian airport security detained Fogel at the Moscow Sheremetyevo airport for carrying 17 grams — or less than half an ounce — of marijuana in his luggage. Fogel said he was prescribed the marijuana to help with chronic pain from a back injury.

Fogel has been imprisoned for about three years. After being taken into custody at the airport stop, he was convicted of drug smuggling and drug possession in June 2022 and is now serving a 14-year sentence.

As of publication time, Fogel was not part of the major prisoner swap that included journalist Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan.

Fogel, who has had limited opportunities to speak with the media, said in an interview last year that he was aware of Gershkovich’s and Whelan’s arrests. He also noted the parallels between his charges and those against WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was arrested a year after Fogel for the same crime and released within a year.

“That hurt,” Marc Fogel wrote in a letter his wife shared with the Washington Post referencing Griner’s exchange. “Teachers are at least as important as bballers.”

What separates Gershkovich, Whelan, and Griner from Fogel’s experience so far is that they were classified by the U.S. government as “wrongfully detained,” a mechanism that gives people imprisoned with that designation more support from U.S. officials.

In June, Fogel’s mother, Malphine Fogel, 95, filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the United States Department of State, claiming that her son had been deprived of necessary assistance by failing to classify Fogel as “wrongfully detained.”

Malphine Fogel’s legal team argued that by being designated as “wrongfully detained,” like Griner and others in similar positions, Marc Fogel and his family would fall into protections provided by the Levinson Act, which gives assistance to U.S. nationals taken hostage or unlawfully detained abroad.

The lawsuit also said the secretary of state failed to disclose a valid reason for not giving Fogel the designation.

The State Department has declined to comment on Fogel’s case, citing privacy reasons.

U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman and U.S. Reps. Mike Kelly, Chris Deluzio and Guy Reschenthaler released a statement about Fogel on Thursday:

“As news of a potential prisoner exchange is being reported, we urge that any swap include Pennsylvania’s Marc Fogel, along with Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich,” the lawmakers said. “Marc is a Pennsylvania teacher with severe health issues who has been unjustly imprisoned in a Russian prison for three years, and as the congressional members who represent Marc and his family, we have been pushing to bring Marc home as quickly as possible. As negotiations are ongoing with the Russian Federation, we respectfully request that any potential prisoner swap include Marc Fogel.”

Earlier this year, the U.S. Senate also approved a resolution pushing for Fogel’s release.