Six US hostages currently held in Iran
Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports on the increasingly fragile fate of six Americans detained in Iran, among them Kamran Hekmati and journalist Reza Valizadeh.
Robert Gilman, a former U.S. Marine imprisoned in Russia since 2022, may be nearing death, according to advocacy organizations working on behalf of his family, which issued the alarming warning Thursday.
Those advocates said Gilman is now receiving nutrition through a feeding tube after reportedly slipping into a catatonic-like condition.
Groups focused on hostage and wrongful detention cases, along with Gilman’s sister, said the former service member may have been subjected to torture and injected with psychoactive drugs before he fell into a stupor in June, Reuters reported.
Eric Lebson, chief strategy officer at Global Reach, the advocacy organization representing Gilman’s family, told News Outlet that Gilman has not been able to eat without assistance for more than six weeks.
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Gilman’s case has grown increasingly serious since his 2022 arrest over an alleged disturbance on a train while he was traveling to renew his passport. (Reuters/Vladimir Lavrov)
Lebson said Gilman was moved in late June from a prison medical facility to the psychiatric unit of a civilian emergency hospital in Voronezh after doctors assessed him as being in a “dissociative stupor.”
“For the past 46 days, he has been fed through a tube,” Lebson added.
“The Russians have not been responsive,” he said before adding that the Russians have also “not allowed his mother to see him, which raises our level of concern that something serious has now happened.”
Lebson said the Russian hospital also barred his mother from visiting him despite a judicial order allowing her to see her son.
“She flew to Russia, and they are not allowing her to come and do what is needed to get him out of a stupor,” Lebson said.
“His mother and lawyer have been prohibited from seeing him since he was moved to the civilian hospital 46 days ago.”
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Robert Gilman now faces 10 years total after a Voronezh court adds two more years for allegedly attacking guards. (Reuters/Vladimir Lavrov)
According to Lebson, the White House and the State Department have urged Moscow to release Gilman so he can receive urgent medical treatment in the United States.
“The State Department and the National Security Council have been very actively engaged in communication about the need for Robert to be released on an emergency basis,” he clarified.
Another advocacy group following the case also expressed concern for Gilmam’s safety.
“It doesn’t seem like he’s getting the care he needs, and we are very concerned for his life and safety,” Elizabeth Richards, director of hostage advocacy and research at the Foley Foundation, which has tracked Gilman’s case, told Reuters.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised Gilman’s case with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a meeting in Manila July 23, according to Reuters.
Gilman is one of at least 10 Americans known to be imprisoned in Russia.
The former U.S. Marine got two more years in Russian prison for assault. (Reuters/Vladimir Lavrov)
“We are deeply concerned about Robert Gilman’s health and continued detention,” the State Department said in a statement.
“I am more afraid for my brother than I have been since this horrible nightmare started,” Gilman’s sister, Lexie Hudson, said in a statement.
“I’m worried that I may never see him again if the Russians don’t release him. I’m worried that he could die.”
As previously reported by News Outlet, Gilman, of Dracut, Massachusetts, was first arrested in January 2022 after fellow train passengers reported he was intoxicated and causing a disturbance while traveling from Sochi to Moscow to replace a damaged passport.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines, July 22, 2026. (Eloisa Lopez/Pool Photo via AP)
He was convicted later that year of assaulting a police officer and sentenced to 3½ years in prison. Gilman later told the court he believed his drink had been spiked.
His legal troubles escalated while in custody after he was convicted in separate incidents involving altercations with prison staff and an investigator.
In December, Russian state media reported that a regional court extended Gilman’s sentence, bringing his total prison term to 10 years.
Vladimir Gilman, Robert’s father, previously said the family asked the State Department in March 2023 to designate his son as wrongfully detained, a status that would make securing his release a top U.S. government priority.
In a statement, a senior administration official told News Outlet that President Trump’s administration is “closely tracking Mr. Gilman’s case and has made repeated, concerted outreach to the Russians calling for his return to the United States.”
