Brittney Griner’s wife Cherelle has given her first interview since her partner’s sentencing, revealing that she fears the athlete will never come out of Russian prison alive.
Cherelle sat down with CBS’s Gayle King to open up about how she feels the WNBA's situation ‘feels like a movie’.
She told King: "I'm like, in no world did I ever thought, you know, our President and a foreign nation's President would be sitting down having to discuss the freedom of my wife.
"And so to me, as much as everybody's telling me a different definition of what BG is, it feels to me as if she's a hostage."
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Two months ago, the basketball centre was sentenced to nine years in prison after Russian airport officials found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage in February, as per ABC News.
Before a Russian judge delivered the verdict, Brittney Griner made a tearful plea, admitting that she made ‘an honest mistake’.
She told the court: "I hope that in your ruling, that it doesn't end my life here."
While the Phoenix Mercury star has filed for an appeal, if she doesn’t win, she will be forced to serve her sentence at one of the country’s female prisons, which are notoriously known for their inhumane conditions.
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According to Business Insider, the prison system has been compared to a ‘gulag labour camp’, where inmates are known to live among rats with diseases like Covid-19, AIDS and tuberculosis running rampant.
Cherelle said: "It terrifies me, because when you watch movies, sometimes those situations don't end well.
"Sometimes they never get their person back."
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She continued: "I feel like every day I'm hearing something new, and so it's just.. it's terrifying."
In mid-September, President Joe Biden met with Cherelle to discuss plans for Brittney's release.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre released a statement: “Today’s meetings come after earlier meetings and conversations that the President, his national security team, and the State Department have held with the Whelan and Griner families to keep them updated on efforts to secure the release of their loved ones as quickly as possible.”
She added: “We all admire the courage of the Whelan and Griner families in the face of these unimaginable circumstances, and we remain committed to reuniting them with their loved ones.”
Topics: News, Sport, Crime, World News, Celebrity
