Brittney Griner’s wife has claimed that the WNBA star is being held ‘hostage’ in Russia.
Despite pleading guilty to drug charges, the basketball athlete released a plea stating that she did not “deliberately” break the law.
Since February, the athlete has been detained in Russia on drug charges. The star pleaded guilty to possessing vape cartridges that contained cannabis oil, which is illegal in Russia.
Speaking to CBS, Griner’s wife Cherelle said:
“I’m like, in no world did I ever thought, you know, our president and a foreign nation’s president would be sitting down having to discuss the freedom of my wife,”
“And so to me, as much as everybody’s telling me a different definition of what BG is, it feels to me as if she’s a hostage.
“It terrifies me, because when you watch movies, sometimes those situations don’t end well. Sometimes they never get their person back.”
The athlete previously explained in court:
“I was in a rush packing and the cartridges accidentally ended up in my bag,”
“I’d like to plead guilty, your honor. But there was no intent. I didn’t want to break the law,”
Breaking News: The detained U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges in Russia. She may face up to 10 years in a penal colony.
"There was no intent. I didn’t want to break the law," she said. https://t.co/bUdt4jwuJW pic.twitter.com/DRQvRCw3C4
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 7, 2022
As reported by CNN, the athlete’s team submitted a letter from a medical centre that had authorized Griner use medical cannabis to treat chronic pain.
The team also submitted test results from 2018 that confirmed the “severe chronic pain”.
Watch the full interview below:
Griner is considered “wrongfully detained” by the United States government.
