Brittney Griner asks supporters to advocate for Paul Whelan, a prisoner held in Russia | CBC Sports

By Charlie On Dec 23, 2022

Basketball

Brittney Griner has asked her supporters in a social media post to advocate for Paul Whelan, a former Marine serving a 16-year prison term in Russia for espionage charges the United States believe are baseless.

Former marine serving 16-year sentence for charges the U.S. believes are baseless

The Associated Press · Posted: Dec 22, 2022 11:13 PM ET | Last Updated: 37 minutes ago

A female basketball player exits the court, high-fiving fans on her way. — Brittney Griner (42), seen here with the Phoenix Mercury, asked her supporters in a social media post Thursday to advocate for Paul Whelan, a former Marine serving a 16-year prison term in Russia for espionage charges the United States believe are baseless. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

The U.S. had sought to secure the release of both Whelan and Griner — the WNBA star detained at a Moscow airport in February for having vape canisters containing cannabis oil — but Russia agreed to swap only Griner for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout. Griner returned to the U.S. earlier this month and Bout was sent to Russia.

In a handwritten note posted to her Instagram account on Wednesday, Griner told supporters their letters to her and advocacy for her release had made a big impact, and she asked them to do the same for Whelan, who was arrested in Russia four years ago. She included an address where supporters can send letters to the imprisoned American.

“I hope you’ll join me in writing to Paul Whelan and continuing to advocate for other Americans to be rescued and returned to their families,” Griner wrote.

Corrections and clarifications|

For all the latest Sports News Click Here

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! TechAI is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.