“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 achievement, I fear I may be here forever,” Griner said. in an excerpt from the letter shared by her representatives. He continued: “I understand that you are dealing with so much, but please don’t forget about me and the other American prisoners. Do what you can to bring us home.’ A White House spokeswoman did not say whether the president had received the letter, but provided a statement from National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson. “President Biden has been clear about the need to release all American citizens held hostage or illegally held abroad, including Brittney Griner. The US government continues to work aggressively — using every means available — to bring her home,” Watson said.
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He added that “the president’s team is in regular contact with Brittney’s family.” Griner, 31, was arrested on February 17 after being accused of having hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. She was in Russia to play with UMMC Yekaterinburg, a professional women’s basketball team for which she had competed during several WNBA offseasons. She has played for the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA since 2013, when the team selected her with the No. 1 overall pick, and has won two Olympic gold medals with the US women’s national basketball team. Griner faces up to 10 years in a penal colony if convicted on the drug charges in Russia. Her trial began on Friday and legal experts said she was likely to be found guilty. But not necessarily on the merits of the case. “There is a bias mainly because the Russian justice system says they really shouldn’t go to trial unless the defendant is going to be convicted,” William Pomeranz, deputy director of the Kennan Institute and an expert on Russian law, told The New York Times. recently. “There is no real idea or expectation that the defendant could be innocent. There is no presumption of innocence, really.” Griner has not responded to the allegations. The US State Department found in May that he had been “unfairly detained”, although it did not say how or why it reached that conclusion. The determination meant that government officials dealing with hostages would work for her release. More than 40 Americans were said to have been illegally detained around the world earlier this year. In her letter to Biden, Griner referred to the Fourth of July. “It pains me to think about how I usually celebrate this day because freedom means something completely different to me this year,” he said, adding that he voted for the first time in the 2020 presidential election — and chose Biden. Griner’s wife, Cheryl Griner, publicly urged Biden to help free her wife. Last month, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, Griner’s agent, coordinated a letter to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris from dozens of women’s and civil rights groups. The letter said Griner was being “inhumanely treated.” “We now urge you to make an arrangement for Brittney’s immediate and safe return to America,” the letter said. 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 charges for more than two years. In exchange, the United States freed Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2011 for cocaine trafficking. US officials have not said whether they would consider a prisoner swap for Griner’s release. Long-standing tensions between the United States and Russia and the ongoing war in Ukraine have complicated Griner’s situation, but government officials have said securing her release is a priority. Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.
