WASHINGTON (AP) — An American teacher arrested in Russia more than four years ago on drug charges has been classified as wrongfully detained by the U.S. government, the State Department said Friday.
Marc Fogel, a history teacher from Pennsylvania, is serving a 14-year prison sentence after he was arrested at a Russian airport in August 2021 and found in possession of what his family and supporters say was medically prescribed marijuana.
After Fogel was excluded from a massive prisoner swap last August that resulted in the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and corporate security director Paul Whelan, among others, his family’s lawyers have renewed pressure on the Biden administration to secure his freedom , including by being classified as unlawfully detained.
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The State Department considers a range of factors when deciding whether to classify an American imprisoned abroad as unlawfully detained, including whether there is credible information that the person is innocent. Factors include whether they are being held for the primary purpose of influencing U.S. policy or securing concessions from the U.S. government.
Officials confirmed Friday that Fogel had now received that designation.
“The United States has been working for some time to secure the release of Marc Fogel. We have long called for his release on humanitarian grounds and tried to include him in the August 1 agreement, but we were unable to do so. The secretary determined in October that Marc had been wrongfully detained,” the department said in a statement.
Traditionally, the designation shifts oversight of a detainee’s case to the office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, a State Department office that focuses on negotiating the release of hostages and other Americans deemed unlawful in other countries have been detained.
