The president of United States, Joe Bidenconfirmed this Thursday that the basketball player Brittney Griner, released in Russia thanks to a prisoner exchange carried out in the United Arab Emirates, was “safe” and on a plane back to the US.
“He is safe, he is on a plane. He’s coming home,” Biden said in a Twitter message in which he also confirmed that he has spoken to her. With the same words, he began her appearance at the White House along with the vice president, Kamala Harris, and the athlete’s wife, Cherelle Griner, according to various media outlets.
Moments ago I spoke to Brittney Griner.
She is safe.
She is on a plane.
She is on her way home. pic.twitter.com/FmHgfzrcDT—President Biden (@POTUS) December 8, 2022
The authorities of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia had already specified in a joint statement that Griner arrived in Abu Dhabi in a private “jet” after being released by Russia, he said. Russia Today (RT).
Biden explained that Griner, who is in “good spirits”, has been released – exchanged for a Russian prisoner, Víktor But, an arms dealer points out efe– after some “intense” negotiations. He also wanted to remind other Americans who have been taken “hostage” and “arbitrarily” detained in Russia or in other countries, and assured that they represent a “priority” for his administration.
In this sense, he regretted that the United States has not yet been able to release another prisoner, Paul Whelan, whose case “unfortunately” and for “totally illegitimate reasons” Russia has treated differently from that of Griner, who was sentenced in August to nine years imprisonment. jail in Russia on drug possession and smuggling charges.
But, known as the “merchant of death,” was serving a twenty-five-year prison sentence in the United States.
The 32-year-old WNBA star athlete was sentenced on August 4 to nine years in prison after being found guilty of the crimes stipulated by articles 228 and 229.1 of the Russian penal code (drug possession and trafficking).
Griner, who was detained in February this year at a Moscow airport with cannabis oil among her belongings, accepted her guilt and asked for leniency, a request rejected by the court.
For its part, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Víktor But had returned to the country in the framework of the prisoner exchange completed at the Abu Dhabi airport, according to RT.
Washington began investigating the activities of the Russian businessman in the late 1990s.
In 2000, 2005 and 2006, But’s name appeared in reports by Amnesty International and the US State Department as one of the main suppliers of arms to Africa, evading UN sanctions. On March 6, 2008, he was arrested in Bangkok (Thailand) by agents of the US special services.
With information from El País, Efe, RT.
