Ex-Marine Imprisoned in Russia on the Brink of Death: 'Unable to Communicate, Receives Food Through a Tube'
Robert Gilman, a 32-year-old American imprisoned in Russia since 2022, is hospitalized in a catatonic-like state and receives food through a tube. His family alleges torture and injection of consciousness-altering substances. The US calls for his release, fearing a fate similar to that of Otto Warmbier.
Robert Gilman, a 32-year-old former US Marine, has been imprisoned in Russia since 2022 and is now hospitalized in a severe, catatonic-like condition at a civilian hospital in Voronezh. He is unable to communicate, his eyes are closed, and he receives food and fluids through a tube. His family and two American organizations claim he was tortured in prison and injected with consciousness-altering substances, and that in June he sank into a state of unresponsiveness. The White House and State Department have repeatedly appealed to Russia to release him, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised his case in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Manila on July 23. The family fears his fate will be similar to that of Otto Warmbier, an American student imprisoned in North Korea who fell into a coma and died of brain damage. Gilman was arrested on January 17, 2022, on a train, and Russia claims he kicked a police officer while drunk. He was sentenced to cumulative terms totaling ten years. The hospital prevents his mother from visiting him, and consular representatives have also not been allowed in.