MADRID, 9 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Russian authorities have transferred the American basketball player Brittney Griner, sentenced to nine years in prison for drug possession, to a penal colony, as confirmed on Wednesday by her lawyers, Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov.
“Our client, Brittney Griner, was sent on November 4 from a pre-trial detention facility where she had been held since her arrest to a penal colony to serve her sentence,” they said, before adding that ” At this time there is no information on his current whereabouts.”
Thus, they have highlighted that both the defense team and the US Embassy should have been notified about the transfer, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. Griner’s attorneys filed an appeal against the conviction in August.
For her part, the White House spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, has denounced that “every minute that Brittney Griner has to endure unjust detention in Russia is too much” and has stressed that the US authorities “work tirelessly to achieve their direction “.
“The president (American, Joe Biden) has asked the Administration to transfer his Russian captors to improve his treatment and the conditions that he may be forced to suffer in a penal colony,” he said in a statement, in which he recalled that “the US government made a significant offer to Russia to resolve the unacceptable and wrongful detentions of US citizens.”
“During the weeks since, despite the lack of good faith negotiations on the part of the Russians, the United States has maintained the offer and has proposed alternative ways to achieve progress through all available channels,” said Jean-Pierre.
Finally, the White House spokeswoman stressed that “the United States Government remains unshakable in its commitment to work on behalf of Brittney and other Americans detained in Russia, including Paul Whelan, also unfairly detained.”
The White House has offered to exchange the player and ex-Marine Paul Whelan — imprisoned in Russia accused of espionage — for arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the ‘merchant of war’, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence. prison in the United States, although the negotiations have not borne fruit.
