Brittney Griner freed from Russian custody in prisoner swap

Brittney Griner, the WNBA star who the US government says has been “wrongfully detained” since her February arrest at a Moscow airport, is on her way home after American officials engineered her release in a prisoner swap.

US officials have said Ms Griner was freed in exchange for the US releasing Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout following months of talks between Washington and Moscow over the basketball star’s fate.

According to the White House, President Joe Biden has already spoken to Ms Griner following her release. Photographs published on the president’s official Twitter account show that Ms Griner’s wife, Cerelle Griner, was present in the Oval Office at the time, as was Vice President Kamala Harris.

Mr Biden wrote that he’d spoken with Ms Griner “moments” before the photos were made public.

“She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home,” he said.

Ms Griner’s ordeal began on 17 February, just before Russia launched its’ ongoing war against Ukraine. The WNBA star, who had been playing basketball in Russia during the American league’s off-season, was detained after customs officials found vaporiser cartridges in her luggage which allegedly contained cannabis oil.

In her July trial, the Russian government said she “bought two cartridges for personal use, which contained 0.252 grams and 0.45 grams of hash oil,” the state news agency Tass reported.

On 7 July, Ms Griner pleaded guilty.

“I’d like to plead guilty, your honour. But there was no intent. I didn’t want to break the law,” she said in English that was interpreted into Russian. In response, Ms Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison.

The United States government quickly classified Ms Griner as having been “wrongfully detained” and began pushing for her release through diplomatic channels even as tensions between the US and Russia continued to step up over the invasion of Ukraine.

This is a developing story with more to come

With additional reporting by agencies