In October 2026, Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired teacher from Michigan, was reported free after more than four years in Russian custody. He had been captured in eastern Ukraine in 2022, convicted by a Russian court of fighting as a mercenary, and sentenced to six years and ten months. The State Department considered the charge baseless. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed the release while meeting Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, and President Trump said he had personally asked Putin to let Hubbard go.
For Hubbard’s family, it is the end of a long wait. For many other American families, it is a reminder of how these cases usually end: not in a courtroom, but in a diplomatic back channel, often at a moment when the two governments happen to be talking about something larger.
Locked Up Abroad, Often Wrongly
Americans imprisoned overseas can find themselves caught in the middle of international disputes, political crackdowns, and legal systems that operate very differently from those in the United States. Some are arrested on drug or espionage charges, while others are detained for their reporting, religious beliefs, business activities, or perceived opposition to a foreign government.
In some cases, U.S. officials and family members argue that the prisoners have been wrongfully detained or are being used as leverage in diplomatic negotiations. These cases can attract international attention, particularly when efforts to secure a prisoner's release become a point of tension between Washington and another country. From high-profile detentions to lesser-known cases that have drawn concern from human rights groups, these are some of the Americans who have been imprisoned by foreign governments.
China
Youlin Chen
A Chinese-American seismologist, Chen was detained in November 2024 and charged with espionage. His family says he has been held for nearly two years without a trial. The State Department has designated him wrongfully detained.
Min Zin
A Myanmar-born scholar who studies China’s role in his birth country’s civil war, Zin was detained on June 3, 2026, in Yunnan province. He had traveled there for an academic conference at the Chinese government’s invitation. Chinese authorities have accused him of spying and endangering national security. Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated him as wrongfully detained on August 20. His case, along with Chen’s, was cited by bipartisan senators who pressed for the new travel warning.
Iran
Reza Valizadeh
A dual U.S.-Iranian citizen and former journalist for Radio Farda, the Persian-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Valizadeh was arrested in September 2024 after returning to Iran. He was later sentenced to ten years for "collaborating with a hostile government." Sources close to him say he had received informal assurances from Iranian security officials that he would be safe.
He is held in Tehran’s Evin Prison, which was damaged by an Israeli airstrike in June 2025. In recordings smuggled out and shared with CBS News, he has described deteriorating conditions and begged for medical care and for the U.S. to make his release part of its negotiations with Iran.
Kamran Hekmati
Valizadeh’s recordings also describe the health of a second American at Evin, Kamran Hekmati. CBS News reported that the State Department considers both men wrongfully detained, and that five U.S. citizens in total are being held in Iran. Hekmati’s case has received far less coverage than Valizadeh’s.
Afghanistan
Mahmood Habibi
An Afghan-American businessman who worked as a contractor for a Kabul telecommunications company, Habibi was pulled from a vehicle on August 10, 2022. The FBI says he was seized by Taliban intelligence officers along with his driver and 29 other employees of the company. The Taliban deny holding him; a spokesman repeated that in August 2026. The U.S. disagrees, and the State Department is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his return. His family says they believe he is alive.
Paul Overby
An American author, Overby disappeared in May 2014 on his way to Waziristan, Pakistan, to interview Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior Taliban figure. He is believed to have been taken by the Taliban, the Haqqani network, or an affiliated group. The FBI is still seeking information. After the Taliban freed American Dennis Coyle in March, a U.S. official said the government was working to bring Overby and Habibi home. Overby is among the longest-held Americans anywhere in the world.
Russia
Russia has long held more Americans than any other country, and while Hubbard was the last one the State Department formally designated as wrongfully detained, others remain behind bars.
David Barnes
A 69-year-old engineer from Texas, Barnes was arrested in January 2022, weeks after arriving in Moscow to seek custody of his sons in a Russian court. His ex-wife, who had taken the boys to Russia, accused him of child abuse. Law enforcement in Texas found the allegations not credible, and prosecutors there say no charges have been filed against him. He is serving what ABC News describes as the longest sentence of any American held in Russia.
Andre Khachatoorian
Detained in December 2021 during a layover in Moscow while traveling from the U.S. to Armenia, Khachatoorian was convicted of arms trafficking and sentenced to eight and a half years. He denies the charge.
Gordon Black
A U.S. Army soldier, Black was arrested in May 2024 after traveling to Russia to see a girlfriend he had met in South Korea. Russia convicted him of theft and threats against her and sentenced him to nearly four years. Cases like his are where the line between hostage-taking and ordinary criminal justice is hardest to draw.
Michael Travis Leake
A former paratrooper and longtime resident of Russia who played in rock bands there, Leake was sentenced in 2024 to thirteen years on charges of organizing a drug-dealing operation involving young people. His family has written to Secretary of State Rubio asking for a wrongful detention designation, arguing he was left behind in the August 2024 prisoner swap.
Robert Woodland
Born in Russia and adopted by an American family as a child, Woodland returned as an adult to find his birth mother and later met her on a television show. He was arrested in January 2024 on drug trafficking charges. He holds dual citizenship.
Cambodia
Theary Seng
A Cambodian-American human rights lawyer and survivor of the Khmer Rouge era, Seng was convicted in June 2022 in a mass trial of conspiracy to commit treason and sentenced to six years. Human Rights Watch called the conviction politically motivated, and a UN working group called for her immediate release. She was later moved to a prison in the remote north. Prime Minister Hun Sen said in 2023 that she would not be pardoned.
How These Cases End, and Why They Are Contested
Recent releases suggest a pattern. Marc Fogel, a teacher held in Russia since 2021, was freed in February 2025 after a visit by Witkoff. Robert Gilman, a former Marine, was granted a humanitarian pardon in August 2026, after his health deteriorated to a life-threatening condition and Trump appealed to Putin directly.
The approach has defenders and critics. Supporters, including the Foley Foundation, have praised the current administration’s pace in bringing Americans home and argue that fears about negotiation encouraging more kidnappings have not borne out in cases like those in Iran and Venezuela. Critics worry about what is being given up. Trump said Hubbard’s release was not a swap, but ABC News reported it was unclear what Russia would receive, and the release came days after Trump waived newly imposed sanctions on Russian officials and oligarchs, a move that drew criticism from some lawmakers. Advocates for families still waiting have a more immediate worry: that cases without a formal designation, or without a high-level champion, get left behind. The Leake family has said exactly that.
For the Americans on this list, the odds depend less on guilt or innocence than on geopolitics, timing, and whether someone with influence is willing to make their name part of a larger conversation. Habibi’s brother said officials have assured the family that any deal with the Taliban would be "all or nothing." The families of Chen, Zin, Valizadeh and the men still held in Russia are hoping the same is true for them.
