Brittney Griner, the W.N.B.A. star who has been detained in Russia on drug prices since February, despatched a handwritten letter to President Biden on Monday asking him not to overlook about her.
“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,” Griner mentioned in an excerpt from the letter shared by her representatives.
She continued: “I realize you are dealing with so much, but please don’t forget about me and the other American detainees. Please do all you can to bring us home.”
A White House spokeswoman wouldn’t say whether or not the president had acquired the letter, however offered a press release from Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council.
“President Biden has been clear about the need to see all U.S. nationals who are held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad released, including Brittney Griner. The U.S. government continues to work aggressively — using every available means — to bring her home,” Watson mentioned.
She added that “the president’s team is in regular contact with Brittney’s family.”
However, talking to “CBS Mornings” on Tuesday, Griner’s spouse, Cherelle Griner, mentioned the household had nonetheless not acquired a reply from the president, calling it “very disheartening.”
She mentioned the White House was not doing sufficient to safe Brittney’s launch, and added that she would not heed the federal government’s requests to let U.S. officers “handle this behind the scenes.”
“I will not be quiet anymore,” Cherelle Griner mentioned. “My wife is struggling and we have to help her.” She mentioned that Brittney additionally advised her in correspondence that she was bodily “weak,” however reassured her about her psychological well being.
Brittney Griner, 31, was detained on Feb. 17 after she was accused of getting cannabis oil in her baggage at an airport close to Moscow. She was in Russia to play with UMMC Yekaterinburg, knowledgeable ladies’s basketball group that she had competed for throughout a number of W.N.B.A. off-seasons. She has performed for the W.N.B.A.’s Phoenix Mercury since 2013, when the group drafted her with the No. 1 general decide, and he or she has received two Olympic gold medals with the U.S. ladies’s nationwide basketball group.
Griner faces up to 10 years in a penal colony if she is convicted of the drug prices in Russia. Her trial started Friday, and authorized consultants mentioned that she was doubtless to be discovered responsible. But not essentially on the deserves of the case.
What to Know About Brittney Griner’s Detention in Russia
“There’s a bias mainly because the Russian judicial system says they really should not go to trial unless the defendant is going to be convicted,” William Pomeranz, the appearing director of the Kennan Institute and an professional on Russian regulation, advised The New York Times not too long ago. “There’s no real idea or expectation that the defendant could be innocent. There’s no presumption of innocence, really.”
Griner has not responded to the costs. The U.S. State Department decided in May that she had been “wrongfully detained,” although it has not mentioned how or why it got here to that conclusion. The willpower meant that authorities officers who take care of hostages would work to free her. More than 40 Americans had been mentioned to be wrongfully detained world wide earlier this yr.
In April, the United States and Russia held a prisoner swap that freed Trevor R. Reed, a former U.S. Marine who had been held on assault prices for greater than two years. In change, the United States launched Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who was sentenced to 20 years in jail in 2011 for trafficking cocaine.
U.S. officers haven’t mentioned whether or not they would take into account a prisoner swap to free Griner.
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