Brittney Griner strikes to Russian penal colony; actual location unknown

Brittney Griner is within the strategy of being transferred to a Russian penal colony — a transfer her household has dreaded since Griner’s August conviction on drug costs — however her attorneys do not know the place she is or the place she’s heading, her Russian authorized workforce introduced early Wednesday in Moscow.

The switch started Friday, her attorneys mentioned, a day after U.S. embassy officers visited her and much forward of the schedule that they had anticipated after Griner’s attraction was denied Oct. 25. Usually, her attorneys had mentioned, a switch takes weeks or months. Griner’s attorneys and U.S. officers weren’t conscious she had been moved till Tuesday.

Griner’s household won’t know the place she is for a while; in line with her attorneys, “Notification is given by way of official mail and usually takes as much as two weeks to be obtained.”

Russian penal colonies are recognized for having far harsher circumstances than the Moscow jail the place Griner has been she was detained in February.

In a press release launched late Tuesday, Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, mentioned, “Our major concern continues to be BG’s well being and well-being. As we work by way of this very tough part of not realizing precisely the place BG is or how she is doing, we ask for the general public’s help in persevering with to put in writing letters and categorical their love and look after her.”

Colas mentioned her workforce stays in “shut contact” with the U.S. authorities and the Richardson Heart, a non-public group run by Invoice Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, that works to carry detained Individuals dwelling. Each the State Division and Richardson “are utilizing all out there sources to find out her whereabouts, guarantee her security, and produce her dwelling,” Colas mentioned.

“We’re grateful for everybody’s help, and hope that as we close to 9 months of detention, that BG and all wrongfully detained Individuals can be proven mercy and returned dwelling to their households for the vacations.”

Griner’s final contact with anybody from exterior the jail was Thursday, when U.S. embassy officers had been capable of go to her. She final noticed her attorneys the day earlier than.

Her household declined to supply a press release late Tuesday in america.

Griner pleaded responsible to drug smuggling costs in July. U.S. officers declared that Griner was being wrongfully detained in Could and have known as her trial and attraction political theater. After an appeals court docket upheld her conviction two weeks in the past, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned the choice was “one other failure of justice, compounding the injustice of her detention.”

U.S. officers have mentioned they made a “severe” supply to commerce for Griner’s freedom in June, however haven’t but obtained what they contemplate to be a official counteroffer. Officers have mentioned they hoped that Russia could be extra inclined to barter in good religion as soon as Tuesday’s midterm elections had been over, realizing that Vladimir Putin’s authorities wouldn’t wish to give President Joe Biden a possible political victory.

Griner was arrested at a Moscow-area airport Feb. 17 whereas making an attempt to enter Russia to hitch her membership workforce in Ekaterinburg.

In a press release, her attorneys mentioned, “Neither Brittney’s household, together with her spouse Cherelle or her Russian authorized workforce could have any additional statements or press availability right now.”