Cherelle Griner, the wife of WNBA star Brittney Griner, praised President Biden in a statement released on Saturday for visiting with her over the player’s detention in Russia, The Hill reports.
After Griner was detained by Russian authorities at an airport in February for possessing vape cartridges containing hashish oil, a kind of cannabis, activists had been urging Biden for months to bring her back home.
In a Russian court earlier this summer, Griner entered a guilty plea and received a nine-year jail term.
On Friday, Biden visited with Griner’s family as well as the family of Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who is currently being held in Russia.
“I want to thank President Biden for today’s meeting. It was an honor to speak with him directly about the Brittney we know and love, and to thank him for the Administration’s efforts to secure her release,” Cherelle Griner wrote, as quoted by The Guardian.
Due to drug-related allegations, Griner has been detained in Russia since February. She pleaded guilty and was given a sentence of nine years in jail last month. She has already appealed the conviction.
Whelan is currently serving a 16-year sentence for allegations connected to espionage that he and his family claim are untrue. Both are believed to have been unlawfully arrested by the US government, which has taken up their cases with the office of its chief hostage negotiator.
Two months ago, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the unprecedented move of declaring that the administration had made a significant proposal to Russia. He did not go into any detail, but a source with knowledge of the situation said the US had offered to free jailed Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
During a prisoner swap in April, the US released a Russian pilot named Konstantin Yaroshenko who had been convicted of participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy in return for the release of Marine veteran Trevor Reed from custody in Moscow.
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