Since March we have been covering this unfortunate situation & we knew with Russia’s homophobic agenda Brittney Griner did not have a chance for a fair & just trial. Now with her excessive sentence of 9 years in a Russian prison it’s time for the U.S. government to do everything they can to bring Brittney home. It's outrageous that Griner who has played professional basketball for both countries including leading Russia to win championship league trophies as well as helping this country win Olympics gold be stripped of her human rights & be cast off to a Russian jail for a misdemeanor charge. Kierra Johnson, Executive Director of the National LGBTQ Task Force stated, “We all know the real reason for this trial & the way Russia had handled her detention: their transparent attempt to give themselves legitimacy & threaten the U.S. & other countries they are in conflict with by holding her for as long as necessary & refusing to negotiate any return. Brittney Griner has been caught in the middle of the conflict & sanctions imposed on Russia. With tensions between the U.S. & Russia are at the highest they have been in decades we have seen the lives of Brittney & others like Paul Whelan have their futures & lives held on the whim of a government that is using them as leverage to retaliate against sanctions & the international condemnation for their actions. We will not stop advocating for her release & return to the U.S., now in the heads of the Biden Administration & the State Department. Bring Brittney home!” Last March I talked to Aron Solomon chief legal analyst at Esquire Digital about Griner’s detainment in Russia.
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