Brittney Griner: The American Olympic basketball star was ‘wrongfully detained’ in a Russian prison | US News
Basketball star Brittney Griner is being “wrongly detained” in Russia, the US said.
A gold double Olympic athlete, Griner was arrested at Moscow airport in February after Russian authorities said a search of her bag revealed vape cartridges containing cannabis-derived oil.
Since then, US officials have stopped classifying the Phoenix Mercury player as wrongfully detained and said they are instead focused on ensuring she has the right to go to jail with US consular officials. .
But now, Biden admin has changed that – which means it will be more active to secure the release of the WNBA player.
Her case supervision has been transferred to a section of the State Department – the Office of the President’s Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs – which focuses on negotiating the release of the hostages and the Americans. are classified as wrongfully detained in other countries.
A consular officer visited her in March.
Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, said: “Brittney has been detained for 75 days and our expectation is that the White House will do whatever is necessary to bring her home.”
The president of the WNBA players’ union, Nneka Ogwumike, said in a separate statement: “It’s time for her to go home.
“Having learned that the US government has now determined that BG is being wrongly detained, we hope that their efforts will be substantial, swift, and successful.”
Withstand AP force
However, it is not clear what prompted the change in Griner’s approach to the case President Joe BidenHer administration has come under pressure from members of Congress and others to prioritize her release.
A statement from the State Department said it would “continue to make efforts to provide appropriate assistance to Ms. Griner”.
Last week, the US secured the release of veteran Marine Trevor Reed as part of a prisoner swap that also resulted in a convicted Russian drug dealer being released from US prison.
In addition to Griner, another American considered to be unjustly detained in Russia is Paul Whelan, a corporate security chief from Michigan who was arrested in December 2018 while attending a friend’s wedding.
He was later sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage-related charges that his family deemed bogus.
