Brittney Griner is not doing well in 'Putin's torture colony' as she shares tiny cell with two others
MOSCOW, RUSSIA: Brittney Griner is reportedly doing “not good” after she got nine years behind bars in Russia after pleading guilty to drug charges in August. It has been said that the WNBA star, whose height is 6-foot-9, has been forced inside a very small prison cell, which she has to share with two others. The 31-year-old is also not allowed to take bath everyday and can only walk outside in fresh air once a day, her lawyer Alexandr D Boykov has claimed.
As per reports, the two-time Olympic basketball gold medalist is currently being held at Correctional Colony No 1 or IK-1, a pre-trial detention center, as she is scheduled to re-appear in court on October 25 to appeal her sentence. The penal colony is reported to be a former orphanage that was transformed around 2012. The jail apparently houses over 400 prisoners as it includes a Russian Orthodox church along with Vladimir Lenin’s statue.
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A 2008 report by The Wall Street Journal described these facilities as “Putin's Torture Colonies”. The report also noted that “the cruelty to prisoners often begins prior to their actual sentencing,” before adding that “suicide attempts at these colonies are common. One convict, named Mishchikin, sought to commit suicide by swallowing ‘a wire and nails tied together crosswise.’ As punishment, he was denied medical assistance for 12 days.”
The jailed athlete's attorney Boykov has described Griner’s bad state as he noted, “She has not been in as good condition as I could sometimes find her in. She is not yet absolutely convinced that America will be able to take her home. She is very worried about what the price of that will be, and she is afraid that she will have to serve the whole sentence here in Russia.”
The lawyer also said that he spoke with the basketball player on October 11 as he added, “Perhaps the verdict will somehow be changed and, perhaps, the sentence will be reduced, because the decision taken by the first court is very different from judicial practice. Considering all the circumstances, taking into account my client’s personality traits and her admission of guilt, such a verdict should be absolutely impossible.”
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has not shown interest in meeting Vladimir Putin during the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia in November. He told CNN, “It would depend on specifically what he wanted to talk about.” He also suggested that if the Russian leader wanted to talk about Griner, “he would be open to talking.” the channel reported. “But look, he’s acted brutally, he’s acted brutally. I think he’s committed war crimes. And so I don’t, I don’t see any rationale to meet with him now,” Biden added.
Later, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also shared the same plan as she asserted that the president “has no intention of meeting with President Putin.” She noted that Biden thinks “that the Russians need to take the serious offer that we put forward on the table, or make a serious counter-offer to negotiate, but in good faith.”