The family of Robert Gilman, a former U.S. Marine and English teacher imprisoned in Russia, is appealing to Russian authorities for his release, warning that he is near death following months of alleged torture in jail.
“The treatment that [Gilman] has suffered at the hands of the Russian prison guards has been far worse than anything else we have seen before,” Kieran Ramsey, chief investigator of the hostage advocacy group Global Reach, told PBS Newshour on Monday.
Reuters reported last week that Gilman had slipped into a state assessed as “dissociative stupor” in late June and was transferred from a prison hospital to the psychiatric ward at a civilian hospital in the southern city of Voronezh.
Global Outreach said Gilman has been unable to communicate, his eyes remain shut and he is being fed through a feeding tube. Ramsey said the organization receives updates on Gilman through his family and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
Gilman’s lawyer Irina Brazhnikova confirmed to Russian media that he has been held in a psychiatric ward at a civilian hospital since early July. The hospital has reportedly barred Gilman’s mother from visiting him despite a court order allowing her to do so.
