An IUP Alum who is currently imprisoned in Russia was mentioned as part of the recent 2024 fiscal year minibus spending bill that was signed into law recently.
The final minibus spending bill contains a portion of the Fogel report’s text, which says that the committee has “serious and growing concerns” about Marc Fogel, who has been detained in Russia in 2021 for illegal possession of medicinal marijuana. Fogel had been legally prescribed the medication in the U.S. to treat chronic pain. He was convicted in 2022 of drug trafficking and sentenced to 14 years in prison. He is now serving his time in a Russian penal colony. It was also mentioned in the statement that Fogel has not been listed as a wrongfully detained person under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act. It requests that the Secretary of State should submit a report to the appropriate congressional committees detailing information related to a review by his department on whether Fogel is wrongfully detained.
The language was included at the request of Congressman Guy Reschenthaler.
In a statement, IUP President Dr. Michael Driscoll said that the university joins Congressman Reschenthaler “in continuing to press the (Biden) Administration to do right by Marc.”
Fogel is a member of IUP’s class of 1984, and has taught history at schools attended by children of U.S. diplomats in Columbia, Venezuela, Oman and Malaysia.
