With the spotlight on the case of Brittney Griner, the American basketball star who has been detained in Russia since February, the conviction of a former US embassy employee in Russia last month on similar drug charges has led his loved ones to also plead for admission home. return.
Marc Fogel, a teacher who previously worked for the US embassy in Moscow, has been convicted of drug smuggling, according to his family and Russian news channels. He was sentenced in June — by the same court that hears Mrs. Griner’s case — to 14 years in a high-security penal colony.
Mr. Fogel, 60, who worked at Moscow’s Anglo-American School, was arrested in August when customs officers at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport found marijuana in his luggage after he arrived from New York. According to a statement from the Russian Interior Ministry, the cannabis was packed in a contact lens container and cannabis oil was also found in e-cigarette cartridges.
In a statement shared by Mr. Fogel’s wife, Jane, his family said he was carrying less than 20 grams of marijuana, which they said had been recommended to him by a doctor in the United States to help treat marijuana. a long-term, debilitating disease of the spine.
Mr. Fogel pleaded guilty to charges of smuggling and illegal possession, transportation and production of drugs, according to the family statement, which called the 14-year sentence “grossly disproportionate” compared to other Russian lawsuits involving similar amounts of marijuana.
The Russian Interior Ministry has said that Mr Fogel and his wife had diplomatic status until May 2021 and that Mr Fogel could have used that status to open a drug smuggling route to Moscow. His family’s statement called those allegations “outrageously and blatantly false” and said Mr Fogel had “an exemplary track record as a teacher.”
“Clearly Marc is the victim of a politically motivated prosecution designed to incite anti-American xenophobia among the Russian population,” it added.
According to the family statement, Mr Fogel has not had consular access since November. It said he had since been diagnosed with anxiety and depression during his detention, and it accused Russian authorities of ignoring repeated requests from Mr Fogel for medical help. Although Mr Fogel’s Russian lawyer had requested medical records from his detention center, they were told they did not exist, the statement said.
Unlike Ms. Griner’s case, the Biden administration has not publicly classified Mr. Fogel as “wrongly detained,” a designation that would place his case under the scrutiny of the presidential special envoy for hostage-taking.
A State Department spokesman said in an email that U.S. officials were aware of and overseeing the detention of a U.S. citizen in Russia, but declined to comment further, citing privacy concerns. .
Elizabeth Rood, the chargé d’affaires at the US embassy in Moscow, said outside the courtroom where Ms Griner’s trial took place on Thursday, saying the Biden administration was determined to bring home “all US citizens who have been wrongfully detained.” Ms. Rood did not specifically name Mr. Fogel, and US officials have not publicly commented on his conviction.