It comes after a Russian court rejected an appeal against a nine-year prison sentence for drug possession last month. “Brittney was transferred from the detention center to Iksha on November 4. She is now on her way to a penal colony,” a statement from her legal team said. “We have no information on her exact current location or final destination.” The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) player was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport on February 17 on her way back to Russia to play for UMMC Yekaterinburg during the US WNBA off-season. She was sentenced on August 4 after police said they found vapor cans containing cannabis oil in her luggage. The US government says Griner, 32, was illegally detained. He offered to trade her for Viktor Butt, a Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year prison sentence in the US. On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement saying, “Every minute Brittney Griner has to endure in illegal detention in Russia is a minute too long. “As the administration continues to work tirelessly to secure her release, the president has asked the administration to prevail on her Russian captors to improve her treatment and the conditions she may be forced to endure in a penal colony. “As we have said in the past, the US government has made a significant offer to the Russians to resolve the current unacceptable and unjust detentions of US citizens.” Griner, who was also a center for the WNBA’s Western Conference team the Phoenix Mercury and is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, said she made an “honest mistake” by entering Russia with cannabis oil – which is illegal in the country – and not he did it. intend to break the law. Her defense team presented written statements that she had been prescribed cannabis to treat pain.
