WNBA star Brittney Griner released from Russian prison, Paul Whelan left behind
After 294 days in captivity, Brittney Griner has been released in a controversial prisoner swap, exchanging her for convicted Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout, also known as the “Merchant of Death.”
The Houston native was released to U.S. officials overnight, just in time to spend the holidays at home with her family, ending her 10 month-ordeal.
Russian officials jailed Griner in February when authorities arrested her at a Moscow airport after finding a small amount of cannabis oil in her luggage. Griner said it was all a mistake, as she was prescribed the oil from a doctor and forgot that it was in her possession. A court convicted Griner in August of trying to smuggle narcotics. She received a nine-year sentence.
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News of her release is bittersweet as another “wrongfully detained” American, Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year sentence in Russia, will not be allowed to come home. Russia is demanding that another one of their captives be released before they consider letting him go.
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As noted on CNN, Whelan – a US, Irish, British and Canadian citizen — was detained at a Moscow hotel in December 2018 by Russian authorities who alleged he was involved in an intelligence operation. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges he has vehemently denied. Whelan had been carrying out his sentence at a labor camp in Mordovia, an eight-hour drive from Moscow, where he told CNN in June 2021 he spent his days working in a clothing factory that he called a “sweatshop.”
Bout, a former Soviet military officer was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States after conspiring to kill Americans, acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles, and provide material support to a terrorist organization. Moscow had slammed his sentencing in 2012 as “baseless and biased” and Bout has maintained he is innocent.
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