Chicago (USA) (EFE).- Basketball player Brittney Griner, star of the Phoenix Mercury and the United States team, announced on Tuesday that she will write a memoir about her ten-month detention in Russia, where she was arrested for drug possession and released on December 8.
“I arrived in Moscow to rejoin UMMC Yekaterinburg and was immediately detained at the airport. That day was the start of an incomprehensible period of my life that I only now feel ready to share,” Griner wrote in a social media post from him.
“After ten difficult months in detention, I am grateful to have been saved and to come home. Readers will know my story and they will know why I am so grateful for the enormous support of the people, ”she added.
The player, who signed a year with the Mercury and will debut in May in the 2023 WNBA season, also assured that with her book she hopes to sensitize readers about other “Americans unjustly detained abroad, such as Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Emad Shargi, Airan Berry, Shahab Dalili, Luke Denman, Eyvin Hernandez, Majd Kamalmaz, Jerrel Kenemore, Kai Li, Siamak Namazi, Austin Tice, Mark Swidan, and Morad Tahbaz.”
Tension between the US and Russia over the Griner case
Arrested in February 2022 at a Russian airport, Griner was sentenced in August to nine years in prison for drug possession and smuggling, because at the time of her arrest she was carrying cartridges with hashish oil to vape when she was going to take a plane.
US authorities announced in December an agreement with Russian authorities to release her in exchange for arms dealer Viktor But.
“It feels so good to be home! The last ten months have been a constant battle, ”he said in a statement released upon his return to the United States.
Griner then assured that his idea was to return to the courts with the Phoenix Mercury.
“I also want to make one thing very clear: I intend to play basketball for the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA this season and, in doing so, I am looking forward to saying ‘thank you’ in person and soon to those of you who stood up for me. , they wrote or published for me,” he said.
In 2021, the last season Griner played in the WNBA, the Phoenix Mercury reached the final but lost in the title fight to the Chicago Sky.