American basketball player Brittney Griner was recently transferred to the infamous Russian prison camp IK-2. She has to serve her nine-year prison sentence for possession of cannabis. Her lawyers announced this on Thursday, international news agencies report. It is the same prison where Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is held, and where members of the Pussy Riot protest group spent 21 months. In IK-2, as it turned out earlier from interviews with ex-detainees, prisoners are tortured and forced to perform forced labour.
Griner’s lawyers visited her in IK-2 earlier this week. According to them, Griner is “doing as well as you can expect” and “trying to stay strong as she adjusts to her new environment.” The transfer would have taken place about two weeks ago, according to Reuters news agency.
Russia repeated on Friday, according to AFP news agency, that it wants to exchange Griner for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is serving a prison sentence in the US. Bout, nicknamed ‘the Merchant of Death’, has been convicted of selling weapons to terrorist groups. According to Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, the negotiations are taking place ‘through a special channel’ and are being ‘professional’. The negotiations on that prisoner exchange have been going on for months, without any concrete steps being taken.
Read also: ‘Merchant of Death’ may be released in US-Russia prisoner exchange
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was detained at a Moscow airport the week before the Russian invasion of Ukraine for carrying 0.7 grams of cannabis; a user quantity. In August, a Russian court sentenced her to nine years in prison, a sentence that was upheld on appeal. The United States says the nine-year prison sentence is far too severe.