For almost five months, Brittney Griner has been detained in Russia on drug charges after she was arrested at a Moscow airport.
The 31-year-old entered a guilty plea in court on Thursday and could spend up to 10 years behind bars. After Russian police claimed they discovered cannabis vape cartridges in her luggage—which are prohibited in Russia—her attorneys are pleading for leniency.
Despite Griner’s claims that she acted “unintentionally” and hurriedly packed, a judge ordered that she remain in detention throughout her trial.
Following her Brittney Griner’s guilty plea to drug possession charges in Russia, Cherelle Griner, the wife of WNBA player has spoken out.
Here’s what ABC News reported:
Cherelle Griner said that the letter President Joe Biden wrote in response to her wife, WNBA star Brittney Griner, amid her detention in Russia brought both of them “so much joy.”
“I believe every word that she said to him, he understood and he sees her as a person,” Cherelle Griner said at a press conference in Chicago on Friday afternoon. “And he has not forgotten her, which was her biggest cry in her letter.”
Griner, who plays for the Phoenix Mercury, personally reached out to Biden in a handwritten letter that the White House received on Monday, urging the president to help her get out of Russia where she has been detained for more than four and a half months.
“As I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey or any accomplishments, I’m terrified I might be here forever,” Brittney Griner wrote to the president.
The president was “very affected” by Griner’s letter, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told ABC News on Thursday, but she wouldn’t reveal what the president responded with.
The matter will be resolved by a prisoner swap with Russia in which Griner and perhaps another American, Paul Whelan, who has been jailed in Russia since December 2018, will be exchanged for Russians detained in the US according to experts.
However, in a report by the Independent, President Joe Biden’s administration hasn’t contacted Paul Whelan’s family but spoke to Griner’s wife.
Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth Whelan, said,
“It’s really wonderful they have resources far beyond what our family does, Our concern is why the outreach to some families and not others? “I was astonished to hear about this call and it did make me wonder,”
“Should we be pushing for a meeting with the president? Is that what it’s going to take to bring my brother home?” She added.
“What I would really like to see is a functioning process that didn’t require that,” Elizabeth continued.
The fact remains that Paul Whelan is also an American citizen and it is the government’s obligation to work all possible angles toward winning his freedom also and his return to this country.
Watch it here: Youtube/CBS News
Sources: Conservativebrief, Independent, Abcnews