'She is a hostage!' WNBA star Brittney Griner's wife fears she will 'never' get back on US soil after being jailed for nine years in Russia on drug charges
- Cherelle Griner said she feels her wife, Brittney, is a 'hostage' while she faces a nine-year drug charge in Russia
- Brittney was arrested by Russian officials on February 17 on suspicion of drug possession before being convicted on August 4
- Cherelle: 'Do I ever get to see my wife again?'
- The US State Department said in May that Brittney was 'wrongfully detained,' with the White House declaring her trial 'another sham judicial proceeding' in August
The wife of WNBA all-star Brittney Griner, who was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison for drug possession, says she believes Griner is 'a hostage' and fears she will never see her again.
Cherelle Griner said she was 'terrified' in her first interview since Brittney was convicted of drug possession charges on August 4.
'In no world did I ever thought, you know, our president and a foreign nation president would be sitting down having to discuss the freedom of my wife,' Cherelle told CBS News.
'It feels to me as if she's a hostage.
'It terrifies me because, I mean, when you watch movies, like, sometimes those situations don't end well. Sometimes they never get the person back.'
Brittney is set to appear in a Russian court on October 25 to appeal her nine-year prison sentence.
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Brittney, an eight-time all-star center with the WNBA´s Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was arrested on February 17 after police found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport.
She admitted to having the canisters in her luggage, but added she had inadvertently packed them while in a rush. Her legal team presented statements indicating Brittney was prescribed cannabis to treat pain.
In the months leading up to her conviction, the US State Department said she was 'wrongfully detained' by the Russian government.
The US government previously offered Russia a prisoner exchange involving Griner and Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year sentence for espionage, for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year sentence in the US.
Subsequent reports say the White House has not received a response to this offer.
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Cherelle last spoke to the media and President Joe Biden shortly before the August 4 conviction.
In her meeting with Biden, Cherelle told the New York Times that the acting president ensured to her and the Griner family that the US government will pursue 'every avenue to bring Brittney home.'
Biden, who also met with Elizabeth Whelan, sister of Paul, conducted separate meetings to assure the families that the detainees 'are at front of mind,' said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
'We're going to continue to do everything that we can, working tirelessly every day, to make sure that we get them home,' she told reporters.
Brittney had sent a handwritten letter to Biden asking for help.
'I'm terrified I might be here forever,' she wrote. 'I realize you are dealing with so much, but please don't forget about me and the other American detainees. Please do all you can to bring us home.'
Former US Marine Trevor Reed was released by Russia in an April prisoner swap after being convicted of assault in July 2020. He was meant to serve a nine-year sentence.
'I'm going to give credit where it's due, and I feel as if this administration is putting a lot of manpower into ways to get BG home through negotiations,' Cherelle said in July. 'Because it's not as simple as one may think – of looking at the list of people we have and asking Russia to choose.
'It's more complex than that and they are exhausting a lot of effort.'
Two months into Brittney's conviction, Cherelle said she has started to question whether she will see her wife again.
"I mean, this is my life and so I'm sitting there like, 'Do we get her back? Do I ever get to see my wife again?'' she said.
'Like, what happens here? The fact that everything's so unprecedented and everything's, like, changeable I think is a really good word. Like, I feel like every day I'm hearing something new, and so it's just kind of like, it's terrifying.'
She told CBS' Gayle King that she is pursuing a law degree while trying to maintain a normal lifestyle despite the unprecedented situation she's in.
Griner's arrest came just days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine, ushering in heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington.
Putin signed a decree earlier this week to illegally annex parts of Ukraine.
Days later, however, Russia was forced to withdraw troops from the strategically important Lyman – located in one of the four Ukrainian regions that Russia annexed.
While signing the decree, Putin also condemned the 'Satanic' West and vowed to use all of the Kremlin's might to protect Russia's new territory. The remark was widely seen as a nuclear threat.
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