Britney Griner Taken to Russian Penal Colony

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US basketball star Britney Griner has been taken to a penal colony in Russia’s Mordovia region, a source familiar with the case told Reuters on Thursday.

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In August, Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison for drug charges after he was arrested at a Moscow airport in February for possessing vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in his luggage. She was transferred from a detention center near Moscow to an undisclosed prison on her November 4th.

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Russian authorities have not provided information on her whereabouts for nearly two weeks, but sources say she was taken to IK-2, a women’s penal colony in Yavas, about 500 kilometers southeast of Moscow.

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The colony is in Mordovia, the same region where another American, Paul Whelan, is serving a 16-year sentence in another criminal settlement after being convicted on espionage charges.

A spokesperson for the US State Department, when asked about the Griner case, said:

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“However, the Russian Federation has yet to provide official notification of such a move of a US citizen. I keep asking.”

Inmates in Russian penal colonies have to work long hours for meager wages, doing monotonous manual tasks such as sewing. Former prisoners and human rights groups described the situation there as follows:

harsh and unhygienic

have little access to healthcare.

Russia and the US have discussed trading Griner and former US Marine Whelan for a Russian arms dealer imprisoned in the US, but no deal has been reached amid mounting tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. do not have.

Griner, who once played for the Russian team in the U.S. off-season, said in court that he used cannabis for the relief of sports injuries, but he didn’t intend to break the law and was honest about packing cartridges. said it was a mistake. .