Who is Marc Fogel?

American footballer Brittney Griner was brought back to the United States but another American prisoner Marc Fogel is still detained in Russia.

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner who was detained and arrested on February 17, 2022, for smuggling charges by the customs authorities of Russia has now been brought back to America. She was detained after cartridges with less than a gram of hash oil which was medically prescribed to her were found in her luggage. President Joe Biden’s administration managed to get back the footballer after negotiating the prisoner for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer.

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President Biden at an event talked about Americans being held by the Russian authorities and assured the audience that they will be brought back home soon but he forgot to mention the American school teacher Marc Fogel, who is also a prisoner in Russia.

Who is Marc Fogel?

Marc Hilliard Fogel was born in 1959 in Pennsylvania. He studied at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He was a history teacher at various international schools in Malaysia, Oman, Colombia, and Venezuela. Since 2012, he has lived in Russia. There, he taught at the Anglo- American School of Moscow. His wife Jane Fogel was also a teacher.  In an interview, his niece Sarah Jane Grubbs said that her uncle Marc loved traveling and he was always passionate about teaching children across the globe.

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This 61-year-old American schoolteacher was apprehended by the Russian authorities in August 2021. The arrest took place at the Sheremetyevo Airport in Russia after he was found with 17 grams of medically prescribed marijuana in his luggage. He was carrying the drug after being prescribed by an American doctor to treat his chronic pain.

Earlier he was in a detention center in Moscow but in October 2022, he was transferred to serve the rest of his sentence in a penal colony.

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In June 2022, Marc was convicted by Russian officials of drug trafficking. He was then sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment.

After Footballer Brittney Griner’s release, Fogel’s family is hoping for her to speak out for Marc’s case.