Mark Vogel, an American school teacher arrested on drug charges in Russia in 2021, has been officially classified by the US government as having been unlawfully detained, according to the State Department. reported By Associated Press.
“The United States has been working to secure the release of Mark Fogel for some time. We have called for his humanitarian release for many years and tried to include him in the August 1st agreement; “As the Associated Press reported, the Secretary determined in October that Mr. Mark was being unlawfully detained,” the department said in a statement.
Hill contacted the State Department for further comment.
Vogel, a teacher from Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for drug smuggling in Russia.
Vogel was left out of a prisoner exchange in Turkey earlier this year that included the United States, Turkey, Germany and Russia, as well as Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Belarus. This was the largest exchange of detainees since the Cold War.
Mr. Vogel's sister, Anne, said that her omission of his statement in an interview earlier this year felt like a “stab in the back.”
According to the Associated Press, the State Department does not consider whether there is reliable evidence that an imprisoned American is “unlawfully detained” primarily to influence U.S. policy or to protect the U.S. It said it considered various factors, including whether the person was being held for the purpose of receiving concessions. government.
