American Woman Sarah Krivanek Will Be Released from Russian Penal Colony in 10 Days: 'She's a True Fighter'
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One week ago, Sarah Krivanek, an American woman who was sentenced to one year and three months in a Russian penal colony for a domestic abuse incident with a Russian man in Moscow, was facing prison "conflicts" that left her feeling she would not survive until her release date on Nov. 7.
Krivanek, from Fresno, California, is one of two known American women imprisoned in Russia. The other is WNBA star Brittney Griner, who recently lost an appeal against her nine-year sentence in Russian court.
In a phone call to her former lawyer, Svetlana Gorbacheva, last week, Krivanek was distraught, saying that she was facing deportation with no idea how she was going to get home. She was unable to pay for or organize her flight from Moscow to Washington, D.C. and feared she might be kept indefinitely in a holding cell for foreign citizens awaiting deportation.
Her loved ones are unable to contact her directly and have only received letters from her via human rights organizations.
A letter from Sarah Krivanek, written in Russian
In phone calls to Russian activists, Krivanek said she had still had no contact with diplomats from the U.S. Embassy. The embassy has been unavailable for comment.
However, last week Krivanek was called in by the prison administration and told that a flight had been booked to take her to Washington on Nov. 8. She is to be escorted by prison transport to Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. She wasn't given further details and it remains unclear whether it was the Russian Penitentiary Service or the U.S. State Department that organized the flights.
Krivanek's friend Anita Martinez, who has been campaigning for her wellbeing while in prison, tells PEOPLE, "I don't care who paid for it, as long as she gets out of that hell hole."
Krivanek appears to have been targeted for mistreatment in the remote penal colony. Krivanek told her former lawyer last week — the only person she was permitted to call at the time — that she "feared for her life" because of bullying from inmates. She claimed the prison authorities were also persecuting her. "She wasn't sure she would survive to her release date. Poor Sarah," says Gorbacheva.
Prisoners' rights organization Russia Behind Bars therefore arranged an urgent visit by volunteers early morning on Tuesday. They also brought supplies for Krivanek. But after traveling three hours to the penal colony and waiting for an hour and a half to see her, they were informed she wasn't there.
"They were told she'd been taken to a hospital for a routine test for tuberculosis," says Natalia Filimonova, who works with Russia Behind Bars. "But we know she was there because she called her former lawyer while the visitors were waiting and later told us she'd been taken to hospital that afternoon. They clearly didn't want anyone from the outside to meet her face to face."
She added that the guards also tore apart the supplies the volunteers had brought in a supposed search for illegal substances before giving them to her.
"I've been working many years for prisoners' rights, but I've never seen such outrageous audacity in breaching the rules before. She has a legal right to meet with visitors," Filimonova says.
Sarah Krivanek Facebook
A State Department official told PEOPLE in a statement back in August: "Our requests for access are consistently delayed or denied. We also continue to press for fair and transparent treatment for all U.S. citizen detainees in Russia."
Filimonova launched a formal complaint through local government officials three days ago, and Krivanek's conditions have since improved dramatically. She has been relieved of her work duties and moved away from the inmates who caused her trouble.
She has also been permitted to make calls to Filimonova. "She told me she's now being treated with respect by the staff and is incredibly relieved that she has a flight out," Filimonova tells PEOPLE. "She was so excited! She was laughing and joking. She thanked us so much for the supplies and told me that sitting down to a cup of coffee and some candies was the greatest luxury she could ever have imagined!"
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Krivanek also told Filimonova that her time in the colony had been spent working on assembling funeral wreaths from paper flowers. She was paid a wage of 300 roubles ($5 USD) a month.
"She can't wait to get on that plane and finally get home. Up until now this has been a never-ending nightmare. I have great admiration for her. She's a true fighter," says Filimonova.
