The Russian government denied the appeal of imprisoned WNBA star Brittney Griner last month. This after Griner plead guilty to attempting to smuggle a small amount of hashish oil onto a domestic flight with her Russian Premiere League team. The Russians sentenced her to nine years in prison. Her sentence will be served in one of Russia’s thirty-five maximum security prisons for women.
The plight of a former United States Marine also reveals what Griner faces for the next nine years while incarcerated. Joey, the father of U.S. Marine Trevor Reed who was detained in Russia, revealed his son lost 50 pounds due to the lack of nutritional value in the food served.
“To a certain extent, you’re starved just by the food that they give you,” Reed said about his son. “We didn’t show any public photos of my son for about a month and a half because he looked like a concentration camp victim.”
More via the New York Post:
“Reed, 62, said his son often described a dour, medieval atmosphere inside the penal colony where Trevor, now 31, lived in crude barracks built of brick and sheet metal. He routinely curled up near hot water pipes or piled on extra clothes during frigid nights in the desolate Mordovian plains, where January temps average in the low teens. When guards threatened to forcibly disrobe his son, Trevor threatened them back, his father said.
“They said they would take them off him and he said, ‘I will take you out trying,’” said Reed, of Granbury, Texas. “But the guards never beat or abused him because they knew he was on the trading block.”
United States president Joe Biden recently reaffirmed his desire to free Griner, but the Russian government isn’t quite playing ball right now.
The former Baylor star was the No. 1 overall pick in 2013. As a WNBA Champion, eight-time All-Star, and Olympic gold medalist, she’s started all 254 games in her WNBA career while averaging 17.7 points, 7.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 2.8 blocks on 56 percent shooting.
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All we can do now is pray for her safe release.
