Malphine Fogel said she would be happy to visit Indiana for Monday’s Trump rally, but is unlikely to do so. “I broke my kneecap a few years ago so I have trouble getting around,” said the 95-year-old mother of Russian prisoner Marc Fogel. Still, she said, she’s doing alright — and continuing to do what she can to keep her son in the forefront of others’ minds, in the fourth year of what could be 14 years in a maximum security penal colony for bringing into Russia a small amount of medical marijuana for his ailing back.
“He hadn’t called for about 10 days and he called (Thursday),” Mrs. Fogel said. “We had a good conversation the last time.
This time one call was cut off then we got through again.” Marc Fogel, an Indiana University of Pennsylvania alumnus, Butler native and Allegheny County resident, would have been going into his final year before retiring as a teacher in the Anglo-American School in Moscow when he was arrested. His mother said Marc Fogel has been assisted in making his calls home by staff at the United States Embassy in Moscow.
On background, attributable to a State Department spokesperson, the Gazette was told Friday, “when a U.S. citizen is detained abroad, the Department works to provide consular assistance.
Consular assistance may include: working to ensure the detained U.S. citizen receives fair and transparent treatment, including access to legal counsel; visiting a detained U.
S. citizen in custody to ensure that they are receiv.