Mark Hilliard Fogel has been detained in Russia after being arrested at an airport in Moscow for possession of about 20 grams of medical marijuana.
The classification would reportedly allow the government to undertake active diplomatic efforts to secure the man’s release.
“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,” a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. “The United States cannot stand by as Mr. Fogel wastes away in a Russian hard labor camp.”
“Mr. Fogel’s medical conditions will very likely worsen in such circumstances,” the lawmakers wrote, highlighting Fogel’s chronic pain and limp from several surgeries, arguing that his sentence is “grossly disproportionate” to similar cases. A State Department spokesperson told the Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday that in general officials “do not comment on Congressional correspondence.”
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