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St Elizabeth St Brigid Prayer Request from Rev. John G. Hillier

Fifth Sunday of Lent
April 6, 2025  Peapack, NJ

Greta Van Susteren THE RECORD - NEWSMAX TV

A Question for Senator Cory Booker
April 16, 2025
Newsmax

Greta Van Susteren THE RECORD - NEWSMAX TV

an interview with Ambassador Kurt Volker
April 10, 2025
Newsmax

Greta Van Susteren THE RECORD - NEWSMAX TV

Greta speaks to Russian President Putin's Investment Envoy Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russian negotiator to Russia/Ukraine Peace Talks
April 3, 2025
Newsmax

Meet a wrongfully detained American prisoner in Russia that everyone should know about.
This is the story of Jimmy Wilgus.

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"Evan Gershkovich, an American like American musican Jimmy Wilgus is sitting in cold cell in Russia with no end in sight... Gershkovich has been sitting in that cell 329 days." - Greta Van Susteren
Footage courtesy of THE RECORD with Greta Van Susteren, Newsmax February 21, 2024

THE RECORD - Greta Van Susteren Feb 21, 2024
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Jimmy has been in a Russian prison since November 7, 2016,
over 8 years in Mordovia IK-17 Labor Camp.

Legal Fight for Jimmy Wilgus' Release

Our Immediate Mission

For more than 7 years we have been pleading with the State Department, and various legislators for their support, to classify our son James (aka Jimmy) Vincent Wilgus as wrongfully detained.

Our request was based on Jimmy being sentenced for a crime he did not commit. This has been a long and frustrating struggle with our own government, which is unconscionable, since Jimmy, and his family, are patriotic, law-abiding American citizens, and whose father and grandfather served in the U.S. military.

After 7 years of abusive incarceration, the reason for Jimmy being detained in a Russian Labor Camp is overshadowed by the inhumane treatment he has received. The violations inflicted against Jimmy, which are described in the Levinson Act, take precedence over any accusations created by the Russian judicial system. It’s time to enforce American law.

Since the U.S. Congress passed the Robert Levinson Hostage-Taking Accountability Act in 2020, we have pleaded with Sec. Blinken and Sec. Rubio to enforce the Act and negotiate the release of Jimmy from Russian custody. This is now a law that allows the use of U.S. Government resources to bring back Americans held hostage who are wrongfully or unlawfully detained abroad. Section 2 of the Act establishes guidelines to assist the Secretary of State to determine which prisoners qualify. It's our belief that several guidelines in Section 2 apply to all Americans in Russian prisons, especially Jimmy, who also has medical issues.

To be specific, we call your attention to Item 8, which clearly provides justification to classify an American as unlawfully detained, “The individual is detained in a country where the Department of State has determined in its annual human rights reports that the judicial system is not independent or impartial, is susceptible to corruption, or is incapable of rendering just verdicts”.

In March 2023, the State Department released its annual report on human rights violations for the year 2022. An excerpt is as follows:

“It is important to note that human rights violations are a regular feature of many of the camps in Russia, according to the U.S. State Department, human rights groups, and others who have maintained regular contact with prisoners in Russia. Physical and sexual abuse by prison guards is systemic, and torture of prisoners is pervasive, at times resulting in death or suicide”.

Further, on May 18, 2023, Former Deputy Secretary of State and U. S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Jake Sullivan (2020-2022), stated the following in Senate hearings of the Foreign Relations Committee:

"...it's a Potemkin court, it is used by the Russian security services and the Kremlin to achieve their policy. There is no justice, there’s no independent judiciary.”

Based on these reports, we question why the Secretary of State is reluctant to classify all Americans in Russian prisons as unlawfully detained?

As further justification, we refer to Item 9 which states, “The individual is being detained in inhumane conditions.”, and Item 10, “Due process of law has been sufficiently impaired so as to render the detention arbitrary.”

For the reasons noted above, we ask that advocates for Jimmy focus on the Secretary of State to implement the Levinson Act and the justifiable classification of “unlawfully detained” for Jimmy Wilgus and all Americans detained in Russia.

  • Jimmy is now entering a brutal, incomprehensible 9th year of a 12.5-year sentence in a Russian prison, longer than any American released to date. He is forced to work in a factory 6 days/week unless he is sent to solitary confinement, which has been most of his first 5 years at IK-17. He has maintained a positive attitude believing it’s a matter of time before his country will come to his aid.

  • The fight for Jimmy's freedom remains paramount and has never been more critical due to his deteriorating medical condition. After a stroke the Russian’s denied him an MRI recommended by a doctor and ordered by a Judge. It’s imperative to secure Jimmy’s freedom, or at least get him the professional diagnoses and proper medical care now, before it’s too late.

  • While Jimmy continues to suffer this total injustice of human rights, we ask for your prayers, support and advocacy in petitioning the U. S. Government to bring Jimmy home. He is an American citizen and should not be a victim of discrimination.

  • This is a matter of justice.  It's a matter of potentially permanent medical impairment. Jimmy did not deserve this. His strength has allowed him to survive the first 6 years, but a stroke has taken away his strength. He must not be forced to serve the rest of his sentence in a Russian prison.

  • As a father who served in the military, I am pleading with my Government to bring Jimmy home along with every detained American. They have all suffered injustice to some degree and are therefore wrongfully detained. Is America’s motto still true, “Leave no one behind”?

  • Unfortunately those arrested in Russia are assumed guilty until they prove their innocence. Over 99% charged are found guilty and receive severe jail time. They have no chance. One day of imprisonment of an innocent person who is wrongfully detained in a Russian Labor Camp is one day too long. Give them back their freedom.

  • Russia has denied Jimmy of 3 basic human rights: His freedom, by unjustly putting him behind bars; His dignity, by publishing false accusations about his arrest; His health by refusing to provide proper medical care. We call on President Trump to bring Jimmy home now. 

  • Jimmy needs his freedom. He needs to get back to WHO HE IS before this unjust interruption of his career.
     

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