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The US Division of State is rising stress on Russia to permit consular entry to the American basketball star Brittney Griner, a month after she was arrested on accusations of smuggling medication into the nation.
“We’re carefully engaged on this case and in frequent contact with Brittney Griner’s authorized crew,” the state division mentioned on Friday.
“We insist the Russian authorities present consular entry to all US citizen detainees in Russia, together with these in pre-trial detention, as Brittney Griner is.
“We’ve got repeatedly requested for consular entry to those detainees and have persistently been denied entry.”
The 31-year-old Phoenix Mercury participant performs in Russia through the WNBA offseason. She was detained at a Moscow airport in February.
Russian authorities mentioned a search of Griner’s baggage revealed vape cartridges allegedly containing oil derived from hashish, an offense that carries a most penalty of 10 years in jail.
Griner’s authorized crew has been searching for her launch however amid tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine attorneys have declined to talk publicly.
On Friday, a member of a Russian state-backed jail monitoring group claimed Griner was faring effectively behind bars.
“Her bodily situation is okay, she’s holding up superb and I’d even say that she is pretty calm and isn’t anxious,” Ekaterina Kalugina instructed the Related Press.
Griner’s attorneys have visited her usually, bringing care packages together with meals and private objects however she has not but met with a US official, Kalugina mentioned. The athlete, she mentioned, had made no complaints about her remedy.
Griner is being held at a facility the place an Israeli girl, Naama Issachar, spent 9 months in detention after Russian authorities mentioned they discovered hashish in her baggage throughout a stop-over on a flight from India to Israel.
Issachar was convicted and sentenced to seven and a half years in jail earlier than Vladimir Putin pardoned her in 2020.
US diplomats have but to put Griner in a class of American vacationers it considers wrongfully detained, a subset that permits for extra authorities consideration underneath the particular presidential envoy for hostage affairs.
Griner is considered one of a number of Individuals detained in Russia.
Trevor Reed, a former US marine, is serving 9 years on costs of assaulting cops in Moscow. A company safety govt from Michigan, Paul Whelan, is serving 16 years on espionage costs. The US authorities has mentioned the fees towards Whelan are false and referred to as for his launch.
There seems little likelihood of Griner being launched shortly. The Russian state information company Tass mentioned on Thursday a courtroom had prolonged pre-trial detention to 19 Might.
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