The plane in which Brittney Griner is believed to be traveling lands in the United States, nearly 10 months after the basketball star was arrested in Russia and became the highest-profile American jailed abroad.
A plane believed to have been Brittney Griner landed in the United States early Friday, nearly 10 months after the basketball star was arrested in Russia and became the highest-profile American jailed abroad.
Griner was released in exchange for the delivery to Russia of the famous arms dealer Viktor Bout. The plane in which the athlete would travel landed at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, in Texas.
The prisoner swap deal achieved one of President Joe Biden’s main goals, but it did not include the release of another American, Paul Whelan, who has been imprisoned in Russia for nearly four years.
Biden’s decision to authorize the release of Bout, a Russian criminal once nicknamed the “death dealer”, highlights the great urgency of the government to get the player back, especially after the recent resolution of her case, related to drugs, and his transfer to a penal colony.
Griner, who also played professional basketball for a team in Russia, was arrested at a Russian airport after authorities said they found vape cartridges containing cannabis extract in her luggage. Before the sentence, the US State Department said that the athlete had been “unfairly detained”, something that Moscow strongly rejected.
Griner won two Olympic gold medals. As a player for Baylor University, she was named the best at her position and she also played for the Phoenix Mercury in the professional league.
Being a black and openly lesbian woman held in a country whose authorities have been hostile to the LBGTQ community gave her legal situation a racial, gender and social perspective, and brought unprecedented attention to cases of wrongful arrest.