Russia is shifting detained US basketball star Brittney Griner to a penal colony, her attorneys have stated, drawing a pointy rebuke from the White Home.
Griner, convicted for possession of a small amount of hashish oil, was transferred out of a detention centre final Friday, her authorized crew stated.
She “is now on her strategy to a penal colony,” attorneys Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov stated in an announcement.
They stated that Russia usually sends notifications of remodeling prisoners by mail, taking as much as two weeks.
“We should not have any data on her actual present location or her closing vacation spot,” they stated.
Griner’s case has drawn outrage in the US, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaching out to Russia to suggest a deal to free her regardless of hovering tensions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
White Home Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated that the US had put ahead a “substantial supply” to Russia to resolve her case.
“Each minute that Brittney Griner should endure wrongful detention in Russia is a minute too lengthy,” Jean-Pierre stated in an announcement.
“Because the administration continues to work tirelessly to safe her launch, the president has directed the administration to prevail on her Russian captors to enhance her remedy and the situations she could also be compelled to endure in a penal colony.”
Griner, a two-time Olympic basketball gold medallist and Girls’s NBA champion, had been in Russia to play for the skilled Yekaterinburg crew throughout her low season from the Phoenix Mercury WNBA aspect.
She stated the hashish in vape cartridges was to deal with ache from her sporting accidents, however Russia doesn’t enable medical marijuana use.
Experiences have prompt that Griner and one other American jailed in Russia, Paul Whelan – a retired US Marine arrested in December 2018 and accused of spying – might be traded for Viktor Bout, a famed Russian arms trafficker serving 25 years in jail on a 2012 conviction
