It's Well Past Time To Free Brittney Griner

This must end.

Last week, Brittney Griner turned 32. Her birthday celebrations were likely muted because she remains a Russian prisoner.

The WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist has been wrongfully detained since February 17, after Russian Federal Customs Service officials say they found vape cartridges that contained hashish oil in Griner's luggage at the Sheremetyevo airport near Moscow. We have zero reason to trust Russian authorities or the Russian judicial system.

Five months later, Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges in a Russian court. After five months in Russian custody, she might've confessed to setting the Chicago fire. That doesn't prove her guilt. Although, that was enough for Donald Trump, who dismissed Griner as "spoiled" and took Russia's side over an American citizen.

 Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison in August during a standard sham trial that ignored most of the defense's argument, as well as her guilty plea. (Griner has a medical marijuana prescription in Arizona.) She received close to the maximum. Her attorneys appealed, but the sentence was upheld on Tuesday. Earlier this month, Brittney's wife, Cherelle Griner, said, "Once that hearing is held and the order is finalized … she could be moved to a labor camp ... My brain can’t even fathom it."

Experts believe the length of Griner's sentence is politically motivated because ... well, duh. The US has helped defend Ukraine against Putin's unprovoked invasion. She's a political prisoner.

PREVIOUSLY:

 Totally Trustworthy Russia Detains WNBA Star Brittney Griner On Totally Legit Drug Charges 

 Trump Pretty Sure US Should Let ‘Spoiled’ Brittney Griner Rot In Russian Prison 

According to the New York Times, Griner will start serving her sentence in a Russian penal colony almost immediately. Her only remaining hope is that the Biden administration can arrange her release through a prisoner swap.

"President (Joe) Biden has been very clear that Brittney should be released immediately," he said, adding that the Biden administration has in recent weeks "continued to engage with Russia through every available channel and make every effort to bring home Brittney as well as to support and advocate for other Americans detained in Russia, including fellow wrongful detainee Paul Whelan."

This is more than a minor inconvenience for Griner. Her life is in jeopardy. Republicans lament the conditions January 6 rioters experienced while in jail, but they predictably remain silent while Griner faces imprisonment in what a journalist with Foreign Policy once described as a "Dostoevsky novel come to life." Former President George W. Bush’s ambassador to Russia, William J. Burns, wrote that Russia’s inhumane prison system "combines the country’s emblematic features — vast distances, harsh climate, and an uncaring bureaucracy — and fuses them into a massive instrument of punishment."

Russia prisons are breeding grounds for tuberculosis, which US Marine Trevor Reed contracted not long into a nine-year sentence for the alleged 2019 assault of two Moscow cops. Yes, apparently, possessing hashish oil carries the same penalty as beating up cops — at least if you're a Black lesbian. Life in prison for queer inmates is obviously not ideal. 

Although Russian authorities haven't disclosed Griner's whereabouts, the New York Times identified the prison from a photograph a visitor published online.

 Video footage of the prison available online shows tall, gray walls, old prison bars and a rusty monument to Lenin in the courtyard. [...]

For Ms. Griner, every day in the facility looks pretty much the same, said Yekaterina Kalugina, a journalist and member of a public prison monitoring group who has visited Ms. Griner in the prison.

The inmates wake up, have breakfast in their cell — usually some basic food — and then go for a walk in the prison’s courtyard, which is covered by a net. The rest of the day is filled with reading books — Ms. Griner has been reading Dostoyevsky in translation, for instance — and watching television, though all of the channels are in Russian, Ms. Kalugina said.

The usual rightwing suspects have mocked Griner's predicament, suggesting it's what she deserves because she dared criticize the US government and law enforcement. Any decent person, however, should want Griner freed from this nightmare.

[ New York Times ]

  Follow Stephen Robinson on  Twitter.   

Subscribe to the Wonkette YouTube Channel for nifty video content!

Look at our pretty photos on Instagram! 

Yr Wonkette is 100 percent ad-free! Please subscribe, donate, and otherwise help keep us alive and kicking!