Friends and family of Marc Fogel, a Butler man currently a prisoner in Russia, gathered in Washington DC earlier this week, hoping to get more eyes on the effort to bring him home.
Varad Kishore, one of Fogel's former students, was one of eight who protested with signs outside of the White House earlier this week.
Fogel, arrested in Russia last year for possessing 17 grams of medical marijuana, is now being moved to a hard labor colony.
"We're trying to do whatever we can to raise awareness," said Kishore. "There's a lot of national attention on the other two Americans that are caught in pretty much identical situation, but that's absent for Mark."
Those two other American are Brittany Greiner and Paul Whelan. The U.S. has been negotiating for the release of Greiner and Whelan, but Kishore says Fogel hasn't been included in those conversations.
They're advocating for the Biden Administration to grant Marc wrongfully detained status, which would expedite negotiations for his release.
