Oakmont teacher Marc Fogel, who has been held in Russia since 2021, has been officially declared “wrongfully detained” by the U.S. government, according to federal filings.
Mr. Fogel’s mother, Malphine Fogel, cited the designation of Mr. Fogel as “wrongfully detained” in a motion to dismiss her June lawsuit against the State Department. Mr. Fogel was sentenced in Russia for having a small amount of marijuana.
The motion to dismiss was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh, and Mr. Fogel received the designation under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act.
Ms. Fogel’s attorney Edward Phillips said, “The designation is extremely important in terms of getting Marc home. It provides huge resources to the government to actually facilitate the release. In terms of getting a hostage home from a foreign country, this is absolutely necessary.”
Mr. Fogel was arrested at the Sheremetyevo Airport outside of Moscow in August 2021 as he returned to Russia for his tenth and final year as a history teacher at the Anglo-American School of Moscow. He was charged with possession of marijuana and sentenced to 14 years of hard labor.
WNBA star Brittney Griner’s case was similar to Mr. Fogel’s. Ms. Fogel’s lawsuit alleged that, “Despite their similar [and in the cast of Brittney Griner, nearly identical] situations, the United States designated each of the United States nationals as Wrongfully Detained under the Levinson Act while denying equal treatment to Marc Fogel.”
The lawsuit sought to compel Secretary of State Antony Blinken to “fulfill his statutory and constitutional obligation” to review Mr. Fogel’s case and designate him as wrongfully detained, “just as Secretary Blinken has done for similarly situated United States nationals.”
Phillips is now pushing for the outgoing Biden administration to work with the incoming Trump administration to ensure Mr. Fogel’s return home to the United States.
