BRITTNEY GRINER SENTENCED TO RUSSIAN PENAL COLONY – Bing video
No one close to the WNBA star knows the whereabouts or the conditions of the colony Griner is being transferred to, and they might not know for some time.
When Traveling Abroad with Medicine – Bing video
A policeman removes the handcuffs from WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner in a courtroom prior to a hearing in the Khimki district court, just outside Moscow, Russia, Griner was arrested in February at the Russian capital’s Sheremetyevo Airport when customs officials said they found vape canisters
with cannabis oil in her luggage.
She has been jailed since then, facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
“Notification is given via official mail and normally takes up to two weeks to be received,” her lawyers said, per ESPN.
The 32-year-old basketball player has been detained in Russia since February after Russian authorities allegedly discovered cannabis oil in Griner’s luggage when she
arrived in Moscow to play pro ball in the country.
Brittney Griner meets with U.S. officials, as the Biden administration tries to release her.
In August, a Russian court convicted her of “trying to smuggle narcotics.” On appeal in October, the court upheld the conviction, keeping her sentencing to nine years in prison, according to The New York Times.
WNBA star Brittney Griner is being moved to a Russian penal colony, her lawyers said on Wednesday. No one close to Griner knows exactly where the colony is located or how long she will be detained there, ESPN reported.
“Notification is given via official mail and normally takes up to two weeks to be received,” her lawyers said, per ESPN.
WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner on a TV screen is seen through a camera viewer as she waits to appear in a video link provided by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service a courtroom prior to a hearing at the Moscow Regional Court in Moscow, Russia.
Brittney Griner meets with U.S. officials, as the Biden administration tries to release her
In August, a Russian court convicted her of “trying to smuggle narcotics.” On appeal in October, the court upheld the conviction, keeping her sentencing to nine years in prison, according to The New York Times.
RELATED Brittney Griner timeline: What led to WNBA star’s conviction?
Prisoners typically work long hours, with little pay in most colonies. Many sleeps in crowded dorms on metal cots for beds. How bad conditions are depends on which penal colony it is, according to the Centre for Eastern Studies, a Polish think tank.
“Despite several attempts to reform the prison system in Russia, they still resemble the Soviet Gulag: human rights violations and torture are common,” the Centre for Eastern Studies said.
RELATED Russian court rejects Brittney Griner’s appeal
Why was Brittney Griner sentenced to 9 years in jail by a Russian court?
RELATED What happens in a Russian penal colony? – Search (bing.com)
WNBA player Brittney Griner is being transferred to a Russian penal colony.
On Wednesday (November 9), one day after U.S. embassy officials met with Griner
weeks after she denied appeal, her legal team made the announcement. It’s unknown where the Phoenix Mercury player, who was sentenced to nine years in Russian prison
back in August, will be moved to.
A penal colony (also known as an exile colony) is a prison camp where prisoners are housed in barracks and often perform labor.
As CNN noted in a report, most were built during the Soviet Union, with a vast majority of Russia’s prisons being penal colonies. Griner’s family might also have to wait to hear of her whereabouts, as “notification is given via official mail and normally takes up to two weeks to be received,” according to her lawyers.
Her legal team also said that because transfers normally take anywhere from weeks to months, it was unusual that a decision was made so quickly. Griner was denied appeal in October, which opened the possibility of being moved from her previous Moscow jail into harsher conditions of the penal colony, where prisoners often endure hard labor & abuse.
MOSCOW — Brittney Griner moving to Russian penal colony; exact location unknown.
President Biden said Wednesday that he hopes Russian President Vladimir Putin will be more willing to negotiate the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner now that the U.S. midterm elections are over.
“My hope is that now that the election is over, that Mr. Putin will be able to discuss with us and be willing to talk more seriously about a prisoner exchange,” Biden told reporters at a news conference.
He spoke hours after Griner’s lawyers revealed that she had been sent to a penal colony to serve her sentence for drug possession.
Who is Paul Whelan, the ex-US Marine jailed in Russia?
U.S. officials have for months tried to negotiate the release of Griner and another American jailed in Russia, Paul Whelan. But there have been no overt signs of progress.
A diplomatic resolution has taken on new urgency after a Russian court rejected an appeal of her nine-year sentence last month. The eight-time all-star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and two-time Olympic gold medalist was convicted Aug. 4 after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
Her arrest came at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington,
just days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine, and the politically charged case could lead to a high-stakes prisoner exchange between Washington and Moscow.
Such transfers can take days or even weeks, during which time lawyers and loved ones usually don’t have contact with the prisoner. Even after she arrives, access to Griner may be difficult because many penal colonies are in remote parts of Russia.
Her lawyers said Wednesday that they did not know exactly where she was or where she would end up — but that they expected to be notified when she reached her final destination.
In a statement stressing the work being done to secure Griner’s release, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken insisted that Russian authorities give the embassy regular access to Griner, as they are required to do. Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow visited Griner last week.
A senior State Department official, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case, said the Russians had not notified American diplomats of Griner’s transfer ahead of time and had not yet responded to queries from the U.S. Embassy about her whereabouts or ultimate destination.
RELATED High-profile activists have reported abysmal living conditions and exhaustive work expectations while being housed in Russian penal colonies, CNN reported.
In many penal colonies, prisoners work for minimal pay, and dissidents and other countries have denounced the conditions of those held. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny went on a hunger strike in 2021 to protest his treatment, including officials’ refusal to give him the right medicines and to allow his doctor to visit him behind bars.
He also protested the hourly checks a guard makes on him at night,
saying they amount to sleep deprivation torture.
BOTTOMLINE: Griner, 32, was detained while returning to play for a Russian team during the WNBA’s offseason, has admitted that she had the canisters in her luggage.
But she testified that she had inadvertently packed them in haste and that she had no criminal intent. Her defense team presented written statements that she had been prescribed cannabis to treat pain.
The Associated Press and other news organizations have reported that Washington has offered to exchange Griner and Whelan — an American serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for espionage — for Viktor Bout. Bout is a Russian arms dealer who is serving a
25-year sentence in the U.S. and once earned the nickname the “merchant of death.”
BONUS: This Is the Most Dishonest State in America — Best Life (bestlifeonline.com)
2022 midterms: a victory for the entitled, government class – American Thinker
