WASHINGTON — Robert Gilman’s release from Russian custody this month heralded a long-awaited homecoming for the Marine veteran after more than four years behind bars.
He had complained for months of a hernia, and when he finally was taken for an emergency, middle-of-the-night surgery, he recalls seeing medical instruments that were dropped on the floor cavalierly returned to the surgical tray. After Gilman was moved to the hospital, he was hooked up to a feeding tube and handcuffed to a bed. “We know he wasn’t getting the medical care and treatment that he needs. Besides Zimmerman and Jezler, the letter names Aleksandr Antonov, who advocates say has a traumatic brain injury; Andre Khachatoorian, jailed for nearly five years and living with an autoimmune disease; and David Barnes, who advocates say requires urgent dental surgery. Other Americans who remain jailed include Stephen Hubbard, who is accused of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine and has been classified by the U.S. as wrongfully detained, and Travis Leake, a rock musician held on drug-related charges.
Among those jailed are a Navy veteran with gastrointestinal illness, a man with an autoimmune disease, another with severe dental damage and Olga Jezler, 36, who was diagnosed with endometriosis, a condition involving abnormal tissue growth from the uterus that can cause severe pain and infertility. A recent letter from 16 senators to Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited Gilman’s weakened condition in urging that more be done to secure the release of five other Americans. Richards, of the Foley Foundation, says that about 28 Americans are jailed in Russia, including a half dozen the organization considers wrongfully detained.
Before Gilman was flown out of Russia, he had been in “a dissociative stupor” for 47 days due to abuse he suffered in prison, Lebson has said. The images of Gilman on the plane ride home raised troubling questions about his condition and the care he received, said Liz Richards, director of hostage advocacy and research at the Foley Foundation, a hostage advocacy organization. “I really do think Russia realized, if we don’t release him, he is going to die, and that would create an international incident between our two countries — to have a Marine Corps veteran, an American, die in custody in Russia because of their treatment,” Richards said. An initial diagnostic test failed to identify the source of the pain, but a doctor consulted by the advocacy group Hostage US identified possible causes as a gastric ulcer, pancreatitis or a hiatal hernia with gastric bypass disorder, according to Global Reach.
