Sister of U.S. Teacher Still Locked Up in Russia: We Feel ‘Stabbed in the Back’
The sister of an American schoolteacher imprisoned in Russia says her family feels “collectively stabbed in the back” after Thursday’s major prisoner swap deal.
The multinational deal saw U.S. nationals including a Wall Street Journal reporter and a former U.S. marine finally released from Russian custody. But Marc Fogel, who has been detained in Russia for three years, is still locked up.
The 63-year-old was arrested in a Moscow airport in 2021 for having medical marijuana in his luggage which his family and lawyer say was prescribed to him for severe spinal pain. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison on drug charges, and he remains incarcerated in a penal colony.