*Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) are working with the State Department to get WNBA star Brittney Griner released from Russia.
The Phoenix Mercury basketball player was arrested in the country on February 17 when she arrived at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport on a flight from New York. Per SandraRose, “A drug sniffing dog alerted customs officials to Griner’s carry-on bag. Officials found multiple vape cartridges containing “significant amounts” of cannabis (weed) oil in her luggage.”
Griner has played in Russia during the offseason since 2015. She is “a member of the UMMC Ekaterinburg, a Russian basketball team that competes in the Russian Premier League and FIBA Europe’s EuroLeague Women,” per PEOPLE. Her arrest came several weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“My office has been in touch with the State Department, and we’re working with them to see what is the best way forward,” Allred said, per ESPN.
READ MORE: Brittney Griner Arrest Photo Released – Family, Friends Describe Painful Uncertainty | VIDEO
“I know the administration is working hard to try and get access to her and try to be helpful here. But obviously, it’s also happening in the context of really strained relations,” he added. “I do think that it’s really unusual that we’ve not been granted access to her from our embassy and our consular services.”
The House Foreign Affairs Committee member continued, “The Russian criminal justice system is very different than ours, very opaque. We don’t have a lot of insight into where she is in that process right now. But she’s been held for three weeks now, and that’s extremely concerning.”
Jackson Lee, who represents Griner’s hometown of Houston, is “demanding” that Russia release the two-time Olympic basketball champion from custody.
“So this is not the first time in recent years that an American has been detained and then held either without reason or without a sufficient kind of explanation,” Allred explained. “What’s obviously different here is that Brittney is an extremely high-profile athlete, and it’s happening during the course of a Russian-begun war in Ukraine, in which we are deeply opposed to what they’re doing.”
“The Olympic gold medalist spends her WNBA offseasons competing for Russian club UMMC Ekaterinburg,” per Business Insider. WNBA players earn higher salaries overseas than in the US, according to the report. For the last seven years, Griner has played in Russia in the winter, earning over $1 million per season.
“Let me be very clear, Brittney Griner is a United States citizen. She was a guest in Russia … I will be demanding her release,” Jackson Lee told the crowd at Saturday’s press conference aired by FOX 26 Houston.
“We know that there were some issues dealing with vape cartridges and other items but let me be very clear: Brittney Griner is a United States citizen, she was a guest in Russia … and I will be demanding her release,” she stated.
“I don’t want to disregard a sovereign nation but Putin has disregarded sovereign nations his entire service in this world,” she continued. “Anyone that is killing and attacking and destroying Ukraine, a neighboring country that is not bothering them, has no right to hold Ms. Griner. Period.”
Griner is reportedly charged with smuggling “narcotic drugs” into Russia. She faces five to 10 years in prison if convicted, according to CNN.
