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American star Griner transferred to prison in Mordovia

American basketball champion Brittney Griner has been transferred to a penal colony in central Russia to serve a heavy prison sentence for “drug trafficking“, announced Thursday his lawyers. “Brittney began serving her sentence at (penal colony) IK-2 in Mordovia“, a region of central Russia known for its prisons and its harsh climate, announced lawyers Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boïkov in a press release, adding that they had been able to visit their client earlier this week.

The 32-year-old athletedoing as well as possible and trying to stay strong and adapt to her new surroundings“, added the lawyers, pointing out that their client was going through a “very difficult period“. His transfer comes after his appeal was rejected following a hefty nine-year prison sentence in August for “drug trafficking“, after his arrest in February in a Moscow airport in possession of a vaporizer containing liquid based on cannabis oil.

His supporters denounce a condemnation to an excessive and politically motivated sentence, with a view to a possible exchange of prisoners between Moscow and Washington, whose relations have been greatly strained in the context of the conflict in Ukraine.

The White House estimated last week that “every minute Brittney Griner has to endure wrongful detention in Russia is a minute too long“. The penal colony IK-2, abbreviation in Russian of “correctional colony number 2is located in the town of Iavas in Mordovia and has more than 800 prisoners.

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