Bob Casey, bipartisan Senate colleagues add to voices calling on State Department to negotiate release of Pa. man from Russia

WASHINGTON — Sen. Bob Casey and bipartisan lawmakers are urging the U.S. State Department to escalate the imprisonment of a Pittsburgh-area native in Russia to the status received by political prisoners, thereby activating official hostage negotiations similar to the intervention underway for the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan.

Marc Fogel was sentenced in June to 14 years in a high security penal colony after having been detained by Russian officials for roughly a year. The widely traveled educator was arrested at the Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow last August for possession of just under 20 grams of medical marijuana.

"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," the Senators wrote Tuesday.

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The group of nine lawmakers want to see Mr. Fogel's case reclassified by the State Department as a "wrongfully detained" under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act.

The law, named for a retired FBI agent who is presumed to have died in Iranian custody after his disappearance in 2007, establishes several criteria for those detained abroad to be considered "wrongfully detained."

Mr. Casey, D-Pa., along with Pennsylvania's Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, and others, say that Mr. Fogel meets six criteria outlined in the law, including his citizenship, age, health and length of sentence.

Other lawmakers who signed the letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken include Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Jon Tester, D-Mont.; Steve Daines, R-Mont.; John Hickenlooper, D-Colo.; Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.; Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.; and Tim Kaine, D-Va.

"Mr. Fogel's medical conditions will very likely worsen in such circumstances," the lawmakers wrote, highlighting Mr. Fogel's chronic pain and permanent limp from several surgeries, and arguing that his sentence is "grossly disproportionate" to similar cases.

A State Department spokesperson said Tuesday that in general officials "do not comment on Congressional correspondence."

"We take seriously our commitment to assist U.S. citizens abroad and are monitoring the situation," the spokesperson said. "We continue to urge the Russian government to allow consistent, timely consular access to all U.S. citizen detainees in Russia, in line with its legal obligations and allow us to provide consular services for U.S. citizens detained in Russia.

"We also continue to press for fair and transparent treatment for all U.S. citizen detainees in Russia," the statement continued. "The Department reviews cases of U.S. nationals detained abroad to determine whether they are wrongful detentions. We review the totality of the circumstances and assess the facts of the case against numerous criteria. Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment."

The White House referred all questions to the State Department.

The Senators' correspondence comes just over two weeks after members of Pennsylvania's U.S. House delegation, and Mr. Toomey, co-signed a letter to Mr. Blinken regarding Mr. Fogel's case.

Mr. Fogel spent 35 years teaching abroad in Malaysia, Mexico, Colombia, Oman, Venezuela and Russia. A year ago this month Mr. Fogel flew back to Russia to teach at the Anglo-American School in Moscow, which educates the children of American and other international diplomats. He planned to teach for one last year before retirement.