Mother of Marc Fogel recalls the phone call from her son telling her he was coming home
Although she's been hopeful for this day, his release today came as a total surprise to her, too.
"I really wondered if I would get to see him again, I think he worried about it," she said.
Malphine Fogel's daily prayers were finally answered as her son Marc was finally released, put on a plane, and headed home. The teacher, husband, and father had been in a Russian prison since August 2021 for possession of half of an ounce of medical marijuana legally dispensed in Pennsylvania.
Malphene described the surprising phone call she received from her son.
"He said, 'bonjourno' and I said 'Well, this is the wrong time to be calling' and I [asked] 'Where are you?" Malphene described. "He said, 'I'm in the Moscow Airport, I'm waiting for a plane.'"
He went on to tell his mother that he would be in Washington D.C. on Tuesday night. He was coming home.
"I just got dizzy, I thought, did I get this right? I couldn't process it," she said.
The story has been filled with so many ups and downs, family frustration, and crushing news when Marc was not included in a prisoner swap with Russia in August.
"That crushed Marc, he said they released Russian dissidents and they left me over here," Malphene recalled.
Malphene filed a lawsuit against the U.S. State Department and former Secretary of State Antony Blinken. She's been advocating non-stop to get her son back home. The 95-year-old credits Western Pennsylvania's congressional delegation and President Trump, who she met with right before his July campaign rally in Butler County.
"He went like this - if I get in, he said, I will get him out, about three times," she recalled. "I said you have to remember his name. He spoke his name, I think he has really been pushing for this. I had written him a couple of letters."
"I can't imagine what it took to survive, we are proud of him for making it," said Sasha Phillips, the Fogel family's attorney. "We are happy to bring him home."
Malphene said while she does feel some anger, she's just happy her son is coming home.
"It was such a minor offense, it doesn't call for any kind of prison time, it was strictly political, he was a pawn," she said. "We are going to hang in there and piece his life together, he's going to have a lot of support. I am just so thankful that this day has happened."
The Fogel family attorney said that Marc won't be coming back to Pittsburgh right away. He'll be going to a hospital in Texas to be assessed and treated and he'll likely remain there for a week or two.
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