Women's basketball star Brittney GrinerLike US teacher Marc Fogel was trying to enter a Russian prison with medical marijuana. not mentioned publicly. Two-time Olympian Greiner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges. He was detained in Russia for about two years after his death, which he denies.
On Thursday, Russian diplomats confirmed to the Russian media that prisoner exchange talks had begun. Vogel's niece Kelly Legineche explained why State Department officials aren't including her uncle in these discussions or classifying him as "wrongfully detained" by the U.S. government. said no.
"It feels like this was the last chance to save his life and it's devastating. We didn't get the momentum they needed," Reginesh said.
A State Department spokesman declined to comment to CBS News on whether it was still considering classifying Vogel as wrongfully detained, although the State Department has been detained abroad. It said it regularly reviews the cases of all U.S. citizens to determine whether their detention was unjustified.
When Vogel was arrested in Russia last summer, State Department officials gave his family a low profile and a lenient sentence. advised to expect Reginech. But after Fogel, 60, was sentenced to his 14-year sentence in June, his family changed tactics to draw attention to his case. His niece launched an online petition to try to create some of the political pressure on her uncle that stemmed from protests by Griner's fans and family about the WNBA star's plight.
"None of the family members who are familiar with the situation in the penal colony, nor anyone we have spoken to, thinks he is approaching this term," Regineche said, worried that he would never see his uncle again. rice field. "It is not justice to pay a life for less than an ounce of personal use of medicinal marijuana for chronic spinal pain." He had more than 20 times more cannabis products than he brought on board and was convicted of "massive" drug trafficking. 17 grams of marijuana in Russia.
According to William Elliot Butler, Pennsylvania State University Dickinson law professor and Russian law expert, the general sentencing range for the amount of cannabis possessed by Griner is five years. Vogel brought in enough marijuana for 10 years since. Minimum 10 years, maximum 15 years imprisonment. Both Griner and Vogel claimed the drug was prescribed for severe pain, but Russian criminal law does not distinguish between prescribed cannabis and both now face near-maximum punishment.
If the State Department fails to negotiate Griner's release, she faces 9.5 years in a Russian prison for drug trafficking of less than a gram of hashish oil. The U.S. State Department classified a WNBA player as "wrongfully detained" before he was convicted in a Russian court, but Butler said it was highly unusual. The calculation of whether to give that significant classification to a U.S. citizen detained in the United States comes down to a "political judgment."
"Britney has a lot of support, so the administration responded," Butler said.
Sasha Phillips, a lawyer advising the Vogel family, told CBS News:
Phillips believes the Russian court's ruling, which came less than four months after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine, was overly harsh on political concerns.
"The same court that sentenced Mark to 14 years for less than 20 grams of medical marijuana was sentenced to 105 kilograms." 15 years for smuggling and selling cocaine,” Phillips said in a statement.
But William Pomerantz, an expert on the Russian legal system who has worked as a lawyer in the United States and Russia, said Russia's drug laws have long been "harsh." Pomerantz, U.S. expands proposed swap demand list.
"Adding a third party would presumably mean that the Russians would want three in exchange for three Americans, and at this stage the United States has no intention of doing so. No,” said Pomerantz, director of the Kenan Institute at the Wilson Center.
Victor Bout, one of his US prisoners of war who could be exchanged for Greiner or Whelan, "Merchants of Death" and was convicted of conspiring to sell weapons to those who plotted the murder of Americans. According to a CNN report, Russian officials have also asked convicted murderer Vadim Krashikow, currently detained in Germany, to participate in exchange talks.
78} Regineche "has little idea" of his uncle's current condition. Because the family is limited to contacting his uncle through letters translated into Russian for inspection. Vogel and his wife were traveling to Moscow to teach at an international private school when they were detained at the Moscow airport.Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of 11 members of Congress from Vogel's home state of Pennsylvania called on Blinken to immediately classify Vogel as wrongfully detained. rice field.
"I still hope [the State Department] will contact my mother or my aunt and explain what the plan is," he said, Mr Leguineche. "We are desperate for some indication that they are not going to forget him."
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