What Is A Russian Penal Colony And Why Is Brittney Griner Being Despatched To One?
Picture Credit score: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP through Getty Photographs
The authorized group for Brittney Griner has introduced that she has been moved to a Russian penal colony, the place prisoners are sometimes put to work.
WNBA participant Brittney Griner has formally been transferred to a Russian penal colony. On Thursday (November 17), Reuters reported that the 32-year-old was taken to the Russian area of Mordovia to Feminine Penal Colony IK-2 in Yavas, about 300 miles southeast of Moscow. The colony can also be the place American citizen Paul Whelan is serving a 16-year sentence after being convicted of espionage prices.
When requested about Griner’s case, a U.S. State Division spokesperson stated, “We’re conscious of stories of her location, and in frequent contact with Ms. Griner’s authorized group. Nevertheless, the Russian Federation has nonetheless failed to supply any official notification for such a transfer of a U.S. citizen, which we strongly protest. The Embassy has continued to press for extra details about her switch and present location.”
On November 9, in the future after U.S. embassy officers met with Griner weeks after her denied enchantment, her authorized group made the announcement. It’s unknown the place the Phoenix Mercury participant, who was sentenced to 9 years in Russian jail again in August, shall be moved to.
A penal colony (also called an exile colony) is a jail camp the place prisoners are housed in barracks and infrequently carry out labor. As CNN famous in a report, most had been constructed through the Soviet Union, with a overwhelming majority Russia’s prisons being penal colonies.
Earlier than she was taken to Mordovia, Griner’s authorized group declared that as a result of transfers usually take wherever from weeks to months, it was uncommon {that a} determination was made so rapidly. Griner was denied enchantment in October, which opened the potential for being moved from her earlier Moscow jail into harsher situations of the penal colony, the place prisoners typically endure onerous, monotonous labor, little entry to medical care, unhygienic situations and abuse.
“Each minute that Brittney Griner should endure wrongful detention in Russia is a minute too lengthy,” White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated in a press release Wednesday morning. “Because the Administration continues to work tirelessly to safe her launch, the President has directed the Administration to prevail on her Russian captors to enhance her remedy and the situations she could also be pressured to endure in a penal colony.”
Griner’s agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas additionally launched a press release calling for public assist.
“Our major concern continues to be BG’s well being and well-being,” she stated. “As we work by way of this very tough part of not understanding precisely the place BG is or how she is doing, we ask for the general public’s assist in persevering with to write down letters and specific their love and look after her.”
This story was up to date on Thursday, November 17.