US officials visited the basketball player Brittney Griner for the first time since it was arrested on Russia for charges of drug possession.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said she was in “good condition” when a US Embassy official visited her on Wednesday.
“In the last few hours, an official from our embassy has had consular access to Brittney Griner,” Price said in a statement. CNN on Wednesday.
“We have been able to check his condition. We will continue to work very closely with her legal team, with her wider network, so that she is treated fairly. That is a message that we will continue to convey in no uncertain terms to the Russian Federation.”
Consular officials visited Griner after US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday.
Sullivan mentioned that he “sent a sincere message” that the US expects to have consular access to citizens in preventive detention.
Griner will remain in pretrial detention for at least two more months after a court granted investigators an extension until May 19, according to the Russian state news agency.
the star of the WNBA31, was detained by Russia’s Federal Customs Service at an airport near Moscow in February on charges of smuggling drugs, which were reported as oil from cannabis used in vaporizers.
WNBA star Brittney Griner appears in a photo released by Russian authorities after her arrest in Moscow. Griner is accused by Russian law enforcement of trying to transport drugs
(screen grab)
The human rights group Public Monitoring Commission previously noted that the US consul had not come to visit Griner for “unknown reasons.”
“Although the administration of the remand center is ready to create all the conditions for a visit,” Ekaterina Kalugina, a member of the group, told Russian state media. TASS.
Kalugina has previously visited Griner and said she had no complaints about sharing a cell with two other inmates at a detention center in the city of Khimki, about 14 miles (22.5 kilometers) northwest of central Moscow.
“The only objective problem was the height of the basketball player – 203 centimeters [80 pulgadas]-”, he quoted TASS to the activist. “The cell beds are clearly designed for a shorter person.”
The two-time gold medalist and Phoenix Mercury star was playing for Russia’s UMMC Ekaterinburg when Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
This is a developing story; will be updated.
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Brittney Griner is in “good condition” in Russia, according to the US.