Update: May 3, 2022 at 1 p.m. ET
Seven-time WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner, who has been locked up in Russia on drug charges, is considered to be wrongfully detained by the Russian government, according to an ESPN report.
According to the ESPN report, the designation change means the U.S. government will no longer wait for the case to play out through the Russian legal system and it will seek to negotiate her return. What’s more, the report stated WNBA players and supporters in Congress will be told they have the Griner family’s blessing to bring attention to her case. (According to the report, Griner’s legal team has followed State Department advice to keep a low profile in order to not make her a more valuable asset to Vladimir Putin’s government.)
The ESPN report also stated that Bill Richardson, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has worked privately as an international hostage negotiator, has agreed to work on Griner’s case.
A New York Times report surfaced in March that Griner — the Phoenix Mercury center who plays for the Russian women’s basketball team UMMC Ekaterinburg in the WNBA offseason — had been detained by Russian Federal Customs Service officials after they found vape cartridges that contained hashish oil in her luggage at the Sheremetyevo airport. The Customs Service, according to the NYT report at the time, stated a criminal case had been opened into the large-scale transportation of drugs, and that it can carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
WNBA star Brittney Griner has been detained in Russia on drug charges, according to a New York Times report.
According to NYT, the Phoenix Mercury center — who plays for the Russian women’s basketball team UMMC Ekaterinburg in the WNBA offseason — had been detained by Russian Federal Customs Service officials after they found vape cartridges that contained hashish oil in her luggage at the Sheremetyevo airport. The Customs Service, according to the NYT report, stated a criminal case had been opened into the large-scale transportation of drugs, and that it can carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Griner, a seven-time WNBA All-Star and two-time scoring champion who won a championship with the Mercury in 2014, laces up Nike on the court.
FN has reached out to Nike for comment.
Since news broke, the sports world has taken to social media in support of Griner.
“Praying for Brittney Griner’s safety and her rights. An incredibly scary situation. Heartbreaking BG has been in there almost a month and we’re just now really finding out. We need to get her home,” Bleacher Report and Turner Sports journalist and broadcaster Taylor Rooks wrote on Twitter.
Former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III also took to the social media platform. “It’s a travesty that Brittney Griner has been in jail in Russia for 3 weeks and we are just now finding out. It’s not a coincidence she is in jail over a vape pen, while Russia is under heavy sanctions from the US for invading Ukraine and trying to start WWIII. Get her home!” he wrote.
Ari Chambers, creator of the Bleacher Report women’s platform HighlightHER, wrote on Twitter: “Woke up thinking about nothing but Brittney Griner. Lord please cover BG, both physically and mentally. It’s unfathomable what she’s going thru. Let’s keep her lifted. We love you BG. We love you.”
