WNBA star Brittney Griner celebrated her 32nd birthday from a Russian jail cell Tuesday while serving a nine-year prison sentence and released a statement via her lawyer to all her fans and supporters.
“Thank you everyone for fighting so hard to get me home,” she said in the release, per CNN’s Ana Cabrera. “All the support and love are definitely helping me.”
The Mercury center was arrested at a Moscow airport in February and accused of having hashish oil in her luggage. She pleaded guilty to drug charges in July, adding that she did not intend to break the law, and was convicted by a Russian court of smuggling drugs with criminal intent in August. Griner has an appeal hearing scheduled for Oct. 25.
The United States has been working to bring Griner back home. Talks of a prisoner swap have been widely reported, centered on the U.S. offering Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for Griner and another American, Paul Whelan, who has been in Russian custody since December 2018.
