Brittney Griner begins transfer to Russian penal colony, attorneys say - CNN

CNN  — 

US women’s hoops prima Brittney Griner is successful the process of being moved to a Russian penal colony wherever she is owed to service the remainder of a nine-year cause smuggling condemnation that was upheld successful precocious October.

Griner “is present connected her mode to a penal colony,” her attorneys said successful a connection to CNN Wednesday.

“We bash not person immoderate accusation connected her nonstop existent determination oregon her last destination,” said attorneys Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov.

“In accordance with the modular Russian procedure, the attorneys, arsenic good arsenic the US Embassy, should beryllium notified upon her accomplishment astatine her destination. Notification is fixed via authoritative message and usually takes up to 2 weeks to beryllium received.”

Russian penal colonies are known for their deficiency of hygiene and entree to aesculapian care, with inmates often subjected to manual labor.

Last month, Griner mislaid her entreaty against a nine-year cause sentence. She was detained successful February and convicted successful August of deliberately smuggling drugs into Russia.

She has repeatedly apologized for bringing a tiny magnitude of cannabis into the country, wherever she played hoops successful the off-season.

In a statement, Griner’s representatives confirmed they bash not cognize her existent determination oregon condition.

“Our superior interest continues to beryllium BG’s wellness and well-being,” her cause Lindsay Colas said. “As we enactment done this precise hard signifier of not knowing precisely wherever BG is oregon however she is doing, we inquire for the public’s enactment successful continuing to constitute letters and explicit their emotion and attraction for her.”

Griner’s detention has raised concerns that she is being utilized arsenic a governmental pawn successful Russia’s warfare against Ukraine.

The US authorities condemned the denial of her entreaty past week, with a State Department spokesperson calling it “another repudiation of justice, which lone compounds the archetypal injustice of her detention.”