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American detained in Russia is ‘near death,’ advocate says

By CNN

(CNN) — Concerns are mounting about the wellbeing of an American detained in Russia since 2022, with an advocate alleging he has been subjected to physical and psychological torture.

Robert Gilman is “near death” after falling into a dissociative stupor more than six weeks ago, according to Eric Lebson, the chief strategy officer of Global Reach, an advocacy organization representing his family.

The US government is “deeply concerned” about Gilman’s “health and continued detention in Russia,” a State Department spokesperson said Friday.

“Given these health concerns, the US government has raised his case repeatedly with the Russian government and has requested his release on humanitarian grounds,” the spokesperson said.

Gilman, a 32-year-old former Marine, was forced to take psychotropic drugs and told lies about his family being beaten up and about being forgotten by the United States, Lebson told CNN.

More than six weeks ago, “he flipped into a dissociative stupor.” He was moved from the hospital in his prison some six hours outside of Moscow to the psychiatric ward of a civilian hospital, Lebson said.

Lebson said they have received information that Gilman is being fed through a tube and is handcuffed to his hospital bed, “even though he is physically not cognizant.”

However, neither Gilman’s lawyer nor his mother, who flew to Russia with a Russian court order allowing her to see her son, have been permitted to visit him since he was moved to the civilian hospital, he said.

“The fact that his mother went all the way there … and was not allowed to see him gives us very serious concern that he may either be dead or he may be in such situation that it’s going to be an Otto Warmbier type situation,” Lebson said.

Warmbier, an American college student, spent 17 months in North Korean detention before he was returned to the US in 2017 with severe brain damage. He died less than a week later. His family believed he was tortured into a vegetative state.

“I am more afraid for my brother than I have been since this horrible nightmare started. I’m worried that I ⁠may never see him again if the Russians don’t release him. I’m worried that he could die,” Lexie Hudson, Gilman’s sister, said in a statement.

“We want our government to make it clear to the Russians that they need to release Robert now before it is too late,” she added. “Whatever deal is required to make that happen is better for the US and Russia than having to navigate the death of my brother because both didn’t seize on the urgency of acting when there was time.”

The potential death of an American in Russian custody would test the US’ thorny relationship with Moscow, which the Trump administration has sought to improve.

Gilman’s family said they were told that Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised Gilman’s case with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a meeting in the Philippines in late July.

Reuters first reported on the concerns about Gilman’s condition.

Gilman was arrested in January 2022. The Russians alleged that he was drunk and got into an altercation with a police officer. Lebson denies this, saying Gilman was hit by the police, got sick, and accidentally kicked the officer.

Gilman was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. He is one of multiple former US Marines who have been arrested in Russia, including Trevor Reed and Paul Whelan.

In a statement to CNN, Whelan said he and Reed “are asking that the White House take immediate action to bring Robert Gilman home from Russia and provide him with the necessary medical care he needs in order for him to continue his life.”

“Robert is part of a small group that Trevor and I belong to, the group of former hostages of the Russian regime who are also Marines, and who also suffered serious medical complications while being wrongfully detained,” he wrote.

In his statement, Whelan called on the White House and Republicans in Congress to do more to help Gilman and other detainees, past and present.

Gilman is one of numerous Americans who remain detained in Russia, including Andre Khachatoorian, Olga Jezler, Chuck Zimmerman, David Barnes, Aleksander Antonov and Stephen Hubbard. Only Hubbard has been designated by the US State Department as wrongfully detained.

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Liberia once offered Black Americans a new home. Decades on, it is receiving migrants the US wants out

By CNN
(CNN) — Is Liberia an American dumping ground — or a place where a new generation of arrivals can build a new life?That’s the question Liberians are asking themselves after the first people to be deported to the West African country from the United States arrived in the capital, Monrovia.The 20 people on the flight from Louisiana were the first to be sent under an agreement that could see up to 1,200 people transferred to Liberia, a country of less than 6 million people, many of them descendants of formerly enslaved Black Americans.Liberian officials said the new arrivals were from “African and western hemisphere countries.”Liberia is one of several countries that have agreed to take migrants being deported from the US under the Trump administration’s anti-immigration crackdown. The arrivals are coming to a nation whose history is deeply tied to migration from the US.Nearly two centuries ago, free and formerly enslaved Black Americans crossed the Atlantic to settle in what would become Liberia – a name that translates as “land of the free.”Now, a country shaped in part by that migration is accepting people the US wants to remove.For Liberians, that has thrown up a mix of feelings in a country still recovering from a long and bloody civil war.“This country is going through a lot, and having more people come in — can we handle all of this?” said Pheta Morris, 48, a descendant of the Black Americans who settled in Liberia.But she said she sees the new arrivals through the lens of Liberia’s history and is struck by the contrast.“I think about the Americo-Liberians — people who were rejected where they were and needed somewhere to go, and Liberia opened its arms to them,” she said.“Back then, people needed somewhere they could be free, accepted and welcomed. Now, people are being rejected from the US, and Liberia is opening its doors to them.”The first transfer has already faced complications.Reuters reported that five migrants who refused to disembark after arriving in Monrovia were flown instead to Equatorial Guinea in Central Africa, where they are held with more than 30 other migrants previously sent there by the US.A US State Department spokesperson said implementing the Trump administration’s immigration policies was a “top priority,” adding that the department generally does not comment on private diplomatic communications with other governments.CNN has contacted Liberia’s information ministry for more details about the agreement and its terms.A country shaped by AmericaThe first group of free Black Americans arrived in Liberia in the early 1820s.Over the following decades, thousands more made the journey, with the American Colonization Society helping to establish settlements along the West African coast. The US State Department says about 16,000 Black Americans migrated to Liberia during the 19th century.The migration was complicated. Some Black Americans saw Liberia as a chance to escape racism and build a new life, while others opposed the colonization movement and rejected the idea that free Black people should leave the US.Africans rescued from slave ships by the US Navy were also brought to Liberia. The settlements eventually formed the Republic of Liberia, which declared independence in 1847.The American influence remains visible today. Liberia’s flag resembles that of the US; its capital was named Monrovia after America’s fifth President James Monroe, and its early institutions were heavily influenced by Washington.Conmany Wesseh, a former Liberian lawmaker and member of the ruling Unity Party who was nominated as Liberia’s ambassador to the United Nations and later the European Union under former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, said that history continues to shape how Liberians view the US.For Wesseh though, the arrival of the deportees raises a more immediate question: Can Liberia, a country still struggling with basic infrastructure and services, accommodate more people?The cost of taking them inLiberia began rebuilding after a 14-year civil war ended in 2003, but Wesseh said the country still needs major investment. Poverty levels remain high and youth unemployment stands at 40%, according to African Development Bank data.“Our country needs a great deal of support,” he said. “We are short on medical facilities, and we have problems with education.”He questioned how the country would manage an influx of people from abroad.“They will have to go to the same hospitals. You won’t create a new hospital for them,” he said. “There’s no spare housing. We don’t have existing housing to put new people in.”Wesseh said Liberia’s development needs may have influenced the government’s decision, with officials hoping the agreement would bring support from Washington.Liberian authorities described the arrangement as humanitarian and said the deportees will be treated as guests who can seek asylum or leave the country.Asked whether he viewed the deal as humanitarian assistance, a diplomatic arrangement or the US outsourcing its immigration enforcement, Wesseh chose the latter.“I think (the administration of US President Donald Trump) just sees this as a place to dump people,” he said. “They want to take them off their hands and dump them in this country.”A chance for a new startFrancis Dennis had long known that his family had roots in the migration of Black Americans to Liberia in the 19th century. But just a few weeks ago, he became curious about his family’s past and began using AI genealogy tools to dig deeper into that history.The 71-year-old former president of the Liberia Chamber of Commerce told CNN he traced his great-great-great-grandfather to Snow Hill, a town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in the US, using the technology and notes left by his father.He said the research also pointed him to the name of the vessel that carried his ancestor across the Atlantic to Liberia, along with a list of its passengers.Generations later, Dennis is watching another group arrive in Liberia from the US. But he does not believe their circumstances have to define what comes next.“People may have their apprehension about a new life, but it’s also an opportunity,” he said. “Some may be happy, some may resent it, but it opens a new window, a new opportunity.”His own ancestor crossed the Atlantic generations ago and became part of the community that helped shape modern Liberia.Now, he hopes those arriving under very different circumstances will also see the country as a chance for a fresh start.“The ball will be in their court,” Dennis said. “Are they going to seize it as an opportunity for a new start, a fresh start, a new life? Or will they be thinking about the past?”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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