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American Brittney Griner moved to a penal colony in Russia

WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner speaks to her lawyers standing in a cage at a courtroom prior to a hearing in Khimki just outside Moscow, Russia, July 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool, File)

WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner speaks to her lawyers standing in a cage at a courtroom prior to a hearing in Khimki just outside Moscow, Russia, July 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool, File)

Posted Wednesday, November 9, 2022 2:04 am

MOSCOW (AP) — Jailed American basketball star Brittney Griner has been moved to a penal colony in Russia, her legal team said Wednesday.

A Russian court rejected her appeal of a nine-year sentence for drug possession last month.

“Brittney was transferred from the detention center in Iksha on the 4th November. She is now on her way to a penal colony. We do not have any information on her exact current location or her final destination,” the statement from her legal team said.

Griner, an eight-time all-star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was convicted Aug. 4 after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.

Griner admitted that she had the canisters in her luggage, but testified that she had inadvertently packed them in haste and that she had no criminal intent. Her defense team presented written statements that she had been prescribed cannabis to treat pain.

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