Brittney Greener, the WNBA star who has been detained in Russia on drug charges since February, sent a handwritten letter to President Biden on Monday asking him not to forget her.
“As I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey or any achievements, I am terrified that I could be here forever,” Greener said in an excerpt of a letter. shared by its representatives.
She continued: “I realize you are dealing with so much, but please don’t forget about me and the other American detainees. Please do whatever you can to bring us home.
A White House spokeswoman would not say whether the president had received the letter, but provided a statement to Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council.
“President Biden has been clear about the need for all American citizens who are being held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad to be released, including Brittney Griner. The US government continues to work aggressively – using all available means – to bring her home,” Watson said.
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She added that “the president’s team is in regular contact with Britney’s family.”
Griner, 31, was detained on February 17 after being accused of having hash oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. She was in Russia to play with UMMC Yekaterinburg, a professional women’s basketball team for which she competed in several WNBA offseasons. She has played for the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA since 2013, when the team selected her as the No. 1 overall pick, and has won two Olympic gold medals with the USA Women’s National Basketball Team.
Griner faces up to 10 years in a penal colony if convicted on the drug charges in Russia. Her trial began on Friday and legal experts said she was likely to be found guilty. But not necessarily on the merits of the case.
“There’s a bias mainly because the Russian justice system says they really shouldn’t go to trial unless the accused is going to be convicted,” William Pomeranz, acting director of the Kenan Institute and an expert on Russian law, told The New York Times recently. “There is no real idea or expectation that the defendant may be innocent. In fact, there is no presumption of innocence.
Griner has not responded to the allegations. The US State Department determined in May that she had been “wrongfully detained,” although it did not say how or why it reached that conclusion. The determination meant that government officials dealing with hostages would work for her release. More than 40 Americans were allegedly wrongfully detained around the world earlier this year.
In his letter to Biden, Greener mentioned the Fourth of July. “It hurts to think about how I usually celebrate this day, because this year freedom means something completely different to me,” she said, adding that she voted for the first time in the 2020 presidential election and chose Biden.
Greener’s wife, Cheryl Greener, has publicly called on Biden to help secure her wife’s release. Last month, Lindsey Kagawa Colas, Greener’s agent, coordinated a letter to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris from dozens of women’s and civil rights organizations. The letter said Griner was subjected to “inhumane treatment.”
“We now urge you to strike a deal to bring Britney home to America immediately and safely,” the letter said.
In April, the United States and Russia held a prisoner swap that freed Trevor R. Reid, a former U.S. Marine who had been held on assault charges for more than two years. In return, the United States released Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2011 for cocaine trafficking.
U.S. officials have not said whether they would consider a prisoner swap to free Greener.
Years of tension between the United States and Russia and the ongoing war in Ukraine have complicated Greener’s situation, but government officials have said her release is a priority.
Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.
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