By Victor Kanayo
A US basketball star Brittney Griner jailed in Russia has been freed in a prison swap deal.
President Joe Biden who revealed this on Thursday via his Twitter handle simply wrote, “On her way home.
“She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home.”
“I’m proud that today we have made one more family whole,” Biden said, adding that he will continue to work to free Whelan.
“We’ll keep negotiating for Paul’s relief. I guarantee it.”
Brittney Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, was in the Oval Office with Biden and the two were able to speak with her by phone, according to a senior administration official.
Cherelle Griner, speaking after Biden, expressed her “sincere gratitude” to Biden and several other officials she mentioned by name for their work.
Griner will be flown to a medical facility in San Antonio where she will receive care, a senior administration official said. Cherelle Griner, will meet her there, according to a senior administration official.
The move marks one of the most high-profile prisoner swaps between Moscow and Washington since the Cold War, with the Kremlin seeing the return of Viktor Bout, who Russian President Vladimir Putin has been wanting to get back — and who had served 11 years of a 25-year sentence in the United States.
WNBA player Griner was stopped at a Russian airport in February and was found to have cannabis oil on her.
She was jailed and sent to a Russian penal colony, but has now been freed in exchange for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who has been held in an American jail for 12 years.
Bout, dubbed the ‘Merchant of Death’, sold arms to rogue governments following the fall of the Soviet Union.
He was caught in Bangkok in 2008, much to the anger of Moscow.
He was jailed for 25 years for conspiring to kill Americans and for supporting terrorists.
Griner, a two-time Olympic basketball gold medallist and Women’s NBA champion, had been in Russia to play for the professional Yekaterinburg team during her off-season from the Phoenix Mercury WNBA side.
She said the cannabis in vape cartridges was to treat pain from her sporting injuries, but Russia does not allow medical marijuana use.
