Brittney Griner Is 'Struggling' and 'Terrified' in Russia, Says Wife Cherelle

Brittney Griner's wife Cherelle is demanding justice.

In an interview with Rev. Al Sharpton on Wednesday, Cherelle gave an update on how she and Brittney are doing almost four months since the WNBA star's arrest in Moscow.

Cherelle, who calls her wife "BG," said that she's very concerned over her wife's wellbeing. "BG is struggling, she's human," Cherelle said on Sharpton's SiriusXM show Keepin' It Real. "She's there terrified, she's there alone."

Cherelle said that she knows Brittney isn't fully expressing her worries to protect Cherelle from the truth.

"Because I'm her person she will always try and write persuasively to make sure I don't break because she knows I'm studying for my bar and she knows I have all these things going on and she's trying to always be my strong person."

Cherelle said Brittney has told her she's "hardened" and is not "on her knee right now" and will need time after she gets home to get back to herself. "But I'm holding on and I won't break until I come home," Brittney wrote in a letter to Cherelle, their only form of communication.

As for how Cherelle is doing, she told Sharpton, "I'm doing okay, I wish I could say I was better, but until my wife is home there is a huge piece of me that is missing."

Brittney, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport in February after vape cartridges containing hash oil were allegedly found by authorities in her luggage.

As for what the government is doing to help Brittney, Cherelle said she doesn't have any concrete answers yet.

"I'm definitely being told a lot of persuasive statements that BG is a priority and that they're doing everything that they can and that it's already at the highest point of the chain of command," she said. "That's leading me to believe that this matter is sitting right in front of [President Joe] Biden."

But so far, Cherelle said she isn't seeing any changes actually happening. "Nobody seems to be at a point where they can tell me anything, so I can only go off of what I see and what I see is my wife isn't here," she added.

During the interview, Cherelle, who just graduated from law school, also made an appeal to anyone listening to the interview to speak up. "We need that public pressure to let them know that Brittney matters," she said. "We're never going to shut up about this until she's back; we're never going to allow them to take their precious time."

"We need to apply as much public pressure on our government as possible to move swiftly," she said.

Cherelle concluded: "It's gut-wrenching that I can't give my wife justice so the only justice in this situation is for our government to execute this deal."

Brittney's trial in Russian court will begin July 1 and she will remain in custody until hearings are complete, her lawyer Alexander Boykov told The New York Times Monday.

She was brought into the closed-door hearing handcuffed by armed guards, CNN reported.

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Earlier this month, Russian state media agency TASS reported that a court has ruled to keep Brittney in custody through at least July 2. At the hearing, the court ordered that Brittney will remain in Russia's custody for at least six more months during the trial.

Following her arrest, the U.S. State Department officially classified Brittney as wrongfully detained by the Russian Federation. "Our position for some time on this has been very clear. Brittney Griner should not be detained. She should not be detained for a single day longer," Ned Price, State Department spokesperson, said in a June 14 press briefing.

If convicted, Griner faces up to 10 years in prison.