Brittney Griner Freed From Russian Prison In Exchange For Arms Dealer Viktor Bout
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WNBA star Brittney Griner is finally on her way back to the U.S. after serving 10 months in Russian detention, announced President Joe Biden today (Dec 8). According to CNN, Griner has been swapped for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
“She’s safe, she’s on a plane, she’s on her way home,” Biden stated live from the White House Thursday morning joined by Griner’s wife, Cherelle.
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“After months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under intolerable circumstances, Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones, and she should have been there all along,” he added.
Although the Phoenix Mercury all-star has been released from the harsh detainment, fellow wrongfully detained American Paul Whelan remains in custody. Acknowledging Whelan, Biden said he knows his family will, “have to have such mixed emotions today,” but that “we’re speaking to them.”
He added, “This was not a choice of which American to bring home. Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s. And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up.”
“I can’t even fathom how Paul will feel when he learns,” Whelan’s brother David expressed in an email after learning Griner’s good news. “Paul has worked so hard to survive nearly four years of this injustice. His hopes had soared with the knowledge that the US government was taking concrete steps for once towards his release. He’d been worrying about where he’d live when he got back to the US.”
Per outlet, the POTUS revealed that the process to bring the 32-year-old home involved “painstaking and intense negotiations,” without going into too many details. However, he showed gratitude for the administration’s efforts to make this happen.
“This is a day we’ve worked toward for a long time. We never stopped pushing for her release,” he stated. Biden also shared that Griner would be on U.S. soil in the “next 24 hours.”
Cherelle Griner expressed her gratitude for bringing her wife home and simply stated that she’s “overwhelmed with emotions.”
She added that together, Brittney and herself, “will remain committed to the work of getting every American home, including Paul, whose family is in our hearts today.”
Brittney Griner was 31 at the time she was detained at the Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow for carrying illegal vape cartridges with hashish oil. Griner was traveling to Russia to play for the country’s premier league team UMMC Ekaterinburg during the WNBA offseason, as she did every year. She was sentenced to nine years in prison back in August and was since moved to a penal colony in the Mordovia republic in November after losing her appeal.
Brittney Griner Facing Homophobia, Racism In Russian Penal Colony
Moscow activist Nadia Tolokonnikova detailed her own former detainment in Russia during an interview with MSNBC where she shared that she experienced “beatings and torture.”
Tolokonnikova also added “It’s one of the harshest colonies. It is literally the harshest colony in the whole Russian prison system. A lot of prisoners just cannot stand it, and some of them decide to commit suicide.”
She continued, “And, let’s say, you’re being tortured and go to prison doctors to document the fact that you’ve been tortured, obviously, they do not see anything and are not witnesses of your torture.”
