Brittney Griner has been in a Russian prison for 75 days.
There are no signs that she plans to be released anytime soon and for a long time, the US Government hoped to be able to get her out by working quietly behind the scenes. That hasn’t been working so they are going a more public route to try to get her home according to this new report from ESPN.
The U.S. government now considers WNBA star Brittney Griner to be wrongfully detained by the Russian government, signaling a significant shift in how officials will try to get her home, sources familiar with her case told ESPN.
“The U.S. government will continue to undertake efforts to provide appropriate support to Ms. Griner,” the State Department said Tuesday.
The officials and other sources close to Griner’s case declined to say what led to the shift or whether there have been any discussions about what it would take to secure her release.
“Brittney has been detained for 75 days and our expectation is that the White House do whatever is necessary to bring her home,” Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, said in a statement to ESPN on Tuesday.
The change in official designation means that the U.S. government will no longer wait for Griner’s case to play out through the Russian legal system and will seek to negotiate her return. It also means that Griner’s fellow WNBA players and supporters in Congress will be told they have the family’s blessing to bring as much attention to her case as they wish.
Griner, who plays during the WNBA offseason for a Russian team, was arrested in February at a Moscow-area airport while entering the country. Russian prosecutors said she illegally brought vape cartridges containing hashish oil.
Griner has not been formally charged, but she is scheduled to have a hearing on May 19. The fact that the U.S. government now considers Griner to be a wrongful detainee does not mean Russia will change its official stance on her detainment, but it does mean that the U.S. considers the legal proceedings to be irrelevant to her case.
Griner is basically a hostage even though they don’t want to legally say that yet.
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