CNN
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US girls’s basketball star Brittney Griner is being moved to a Russian penal colony the place she is because of serve the rest of a nine-year drug smuggling sentence that was upheld in late October.
Griner “is now on her strategy to a penal colony,” her attorneys stated in a press release to CNN on Wednesday.
“We do not need any info on her precise present location or her ultimate vacation spot,” stated attorneys Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov. “In accordance with the usual Russian process, the attorneys, in addition to the US Embassy, must be notified upon her arrival at her vacation spot. Notification is given through official mail and usually takes as much as two weeks to be acquired.”
Russian penal colonies are identified for his or her lack of hygiene and entry to medical care, with inmates usually required to carry out handbook labor.
Final month, Griner misplaced her enchantment of her sentence. She was detained in February and convicted in August of smuggling medicine into Russia.
She has repeatedly apologized for bringing a small quantity of hashish into the nation, the place she performed basketball within the low season.
In a press release, Griner’s representatives stated they don’t know the place she is – or what her situation is.
“Our main concern continues to be BG’s well being and well-being,” Griner’s agent, Lindsay Colas, stated. “As we work via this very tough part of not understanding precisely the place BG is or how she is doing, we ask for the general public’s assist in persevering with to jot down letters and specific their love and take care of her.”
Russia “sadly adopted previous observe” and didn’t notify america forward of transferring Griner, a senior State Division official stated Wedneday. Whereas US officers anticipated Griner can be transferred, they came upon concerning the transfer from her authorized crew and press studies.
US diplomats have requested Russia for info on Griner however Russia hasn’t supplied any solutions, the official stated.
“We’re speaking very clearly to the Russians requesting info on her present location in addition to her vacation spot along with the message that we anticipate per their obligations, together with below below the Vienna Conference, to have a constant consular entry to Brittney Griner,” the official stated.
Griner’s detention has raised issues that she is getting used as a political pawn in Russia’s battle in opposition to Ukraine.
The US authorities condemned the denial of her enchantment final week, with a State Division spokesperson calling it “one other repudiation of justice, which solely compounds the unique injustice of her detention.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken known as information of Griner’s switch “one other injustice layered on her ongoing unjust and wrongful detention.”
“As we work to safe Brittney Griner’s launch, we anticipate Russian authorities to offer our Embassy officers with common entry to all U.S. residents detained in Russia, together with Brittney, as is their obligation,” Blinken stated in a press release Wednesday. “Guaranteeing the well being and welfare of U.S. citizen detainees in Russia is a precedence, and we are going to proceed to press for honest and clear therapy for all of them.”
President Joe Biden stated Wednesday he hopes Russia will discuss extra severely a couple of prisoner alternate following Tuesday’s midterm elections.
“My intention is to get her dwelling, and we’ve had various discussions thus far. And I’m hopeful that now that our election is over, there’s a willingness to barter extra particularly with this,” Biden stated at a information convention.
“I’m telling you, I’m decided to get her dwelling and get her dwelling safely, together with others, I would add,” Biden stated.
American officers “proceed to work relentlessly to carry dwelling” each Griner and Paul Whelan, one other American held in Russia, who was sentenced to 16 years in jail after he was convicted of espionage – costs he denies.
“We is not going to relent till they’re reunited with their family members,” Blinken stated Wednesday.
