Tag: Free Brittney Griner

Bringing Brittney Griner home came at a heavy cost, but it was worth it

Brittney Griner is on her way home. Here are the next steps

Fans, friends and allies from across the sports world were overtaken with joy when news of Brittney Griner’s release broke Thursday morning. The U.S. government successfully orchestrated a 1-to-1 prisoner swap with Russia to bring Griner home after she spent months in detainment on drug smuggling charges and later sentenced to nine years in prison.

As it stands now, she’s free, safe and on a flight home. But it didn’t come without a heavy cost considering who she was swapped for. And there’s still plenty of work to be done to bring another detainee home, too.

Let’s dig into the aftermath of all this now that Griner is on her way back to the United States.

There’s still a way to free Brittney Griner, but the United States needs to act fast

It’s time for the United States to bring Brittney Griner home.

Brittney Griner has been wrongfully detained in Russia for months now since she was arrested back earlier this year for carrying cannabis oil in her luggage.

Russian authorities handed her a nine-year prison sentence for what they called “drug smuggling,” despite her insistence that she accidentally packed it on her way into the country to prepare to play for her Russian club.

Fans everywhere were absolutely devastated when authorities handed the final verdict down. It feels very clear that Griner is being used as a pawn here — she possessed less than a gram of cannabis oil when she was detained.

But, believe it or not, all hope isn’t lost here for Griner.

There’s still a path to bringing her home and reuniting her with her loved ones and it starts now with her sentencing, despite how daunting the task feels.

Let’s dive into what happens next for Griner:

Fans poured in support for Brittney Griner after Russian authorities sentenced WNBA star to 9 years in prison

Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner. Free Brittney Griner.

Brittney Griner’s situation in Russia has shifted from precarious to straight-up disastrous.

The WNBA star made her final appeal in a Russian court on Thursday by issuing an apology to her family, her fans and her team for her “honest mistake” of carrying less than a gram carrying cannabis oil in her luggage upon arrival in Russia.

It seems that the apology fell on deaf ears with Russian authorities. The judge sentenced Griner to nine years in prison after finding her guilty of drug smuggling, per ABC News’ James Longman.

It was only a half year off of the 9.5 years prosecutors requested from the judge ahead of the sentencing.

In her statement, Griner said she never meant to heart anyone and begged Russian authorities not to “end my life here.”

“I never meant to hurt anybody. I never meant to put in jeopardy the Russian population. I never meant to break any laws here. I made an honest mistake and I hope that in your ruling that it doesn’t end my life here.”

Griner now has a nine-year sentence and is gravely in danger for obvious reasons.

The Russian justice system is mysterious at best and sinister at its worst — particularly for someone like Griner who is a gay, Black woman. Russia isn’t known for being kind to people like her.

She needs help and she needs it fast. No one knows what will happen to her over there and, honestly, it’s terrifying to think about.

That’s why fans everywhere passionately voiced their support for Griner after we learned of the sentencing: