Brittney Griner begins transfer to Russian penal colony, lawyers say

US women’s basketball star Brittney Griner is in the process of being transferred to a Russian penal colony, where she must serve the remainder of a nine-year sentence for drug trafficking that was confirmed in late October.

Griner “is now on his way to a penal colony,” his lawyers said in a statement to CNN on Wednesday.

“We do not have any information about his exact current location or his final destination,” said lawyers Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov. “According to standard Russian procedure, lawyers as well as the US Embassy must be notified when it arrives at its destination. Notification is sent via official mail and normally takes up to two weeks to receive.”

Russian penal colonies are known for their lack of hygiene and access to medical care, with prisoners often subjected to manual labor.

Last month, Griner lost his appeal against a nine-year drug sentence. She was arrested in February and convicted in August of deliberately smuggling drugs into Russia.

She repeatedly apologized for bringing a small amount of cannabis into the country, where she played basketball in the off-season.

In a statement, Griner’s representatives confirmed that they do not know his location or current condition.

“Our primary concern remains BG’s health and well-being,” said his agent Lindsay Colas. “As we work through this very difficult time of not knowing exactly where BG is or how she is doing, we ask for the public’s support to continue writing letters and expressing their love and affection for her.”

Griner’s detention has raised concerns that she is being used as a political pawn in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The US government condemned the denial of his appeal last week, with a State Department spokesperson calling it “another repudiation of justice that only exacerbates the original injustice of his detention”.