Bloomberg
July 4, 2022, 7:52 P.M. – Updated on July 4, 2022, 11:55 P.M.
WNBA player Brittney Griner wrote to President Joe Biden, pleading with him to bring her and other Americans detained in Russia back home.
Griner told Biden in the letter that she is “terrified I might be here forever,” according to the Associated Press.
A representative for Griner delivered the letter to the White House. The representative, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg News.
Griner, a two-time Olympic Gold medalist, faces a drug smuggling charge in Russia, where she could serve as many as 10 years in prison if convicted. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said last week that the US considers Griner to be wrongfully detained and that officials are actively working to resolve her case.
Russia Starts US Basketball Star Griner’s Trial in Moscow
“The U.S. government continues to work aggressively – using every available means – to bring her home,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement late Monday.
The WNBA player was detained in Moscow in February after police accused her of illegally trying to import hash oil into the country in vape cartridges. Griner’s wife, Cherelle, has called her “a political pawn.”
A trial in Moscow began on Friday, the latest in a series of cases involving Americans held by Russian authorities amid deteriorating relations.
In June, a Russian court sentenced another American, Marc Fogel, a former US diplomat and teacher in Moscow, to 14 years after convicting him of smuggling cannabis. He said he was carrying marijuana for medical purposes.
(Updates with US official’s comment in fifth paragraph.)
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