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Russia Frees US Basketball Star Brittney Griner in Exchange for Arms Dealer Viktor Bout

Curated By: News Desk

Edited By: Shankhyaneel Sarkar

News18.com

Last Updated: December 08, 2022, 20:05 IST

Washington, United States

Russia has freed American basketball player Brittney Griner on Thursday (Image: Reuters File)

Russia has freed American basketball player Brittney Griner on Thursday (Image: Reuters File)

Griner was jailed after she was found in possession of cannabis oil and in November she was sent to penal colony

US basketball player Brittney Griner was set free by Russia in a one-for-one prisoner swap for international arms dealer Viktor Bout, CBS News reported citing American officials on Thursday.

Viktor Bout is a notorious arms dealer who was languishing in American prison for the last 12 years.

US President Joe Biden in a tweet confirmed that Griner was returning home and is safe.

Griner was arrested in Russia earlier this year in February when she was found possessing cannabis oil in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport airport.

Her arrest became an international issue as Russia relations with the US worsened following the war on Ukraine. She was arrested on February 17.

Griner plays basketball for UMMC Ekaterinburg, a Russian basketball team based in the city of Yekaterinburg which competes in Russian Premier League Basketball and the FIBA Europe’s EuroLeague Women.

Griner during her trials in Russia admitted to possessing cannabis canisters and testified that it was part of her luggage because she was in a hurry during packing, without any criminal intent.

She was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony. She said that she used cannabis oil for pain relief. People familiar with the developments told CBS News that the prisoner swap was agreed recently between both parties. “She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home,” US President Joe Biden tweeted.

CBS News said that Joe Biden signed the commutation order cutting short Bout’s 25-year federal prison sentence.

Bout was jailed for in April 2012 after being found guilty of conspiracy to kill US citizens, US officials, delivering anti-aircraft weapons and helping a terrorist organisation.

The Biden administration proposed prisoner exchange in the summer and was aware that Moscow sought the release of Bout.

Bout was arrested by the Drug Enforcement Agency in Bangkok when they posed as potential buyers from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as Farc.

He was arrested by Thai law enforcement officials and after a long process he was extradited to the United States, which angered Russia.

During his trial in New York, Bout told the court that the weapons would be used to kill American pilots working with Colombian officials.

Bout has been nicknamed ‘merchant of death’ by a UK Foreign Office minister  Peter Hain, which also happens to be name of the book on Bout’s exploits written by security experts Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun.

Bout began his career in air transport in the early 1990s using military planes which were discarded by Soviet Russia and were littered across airfields.

Bout has been accused of arming both sides of the Angolan civil war, aiding Sierra Leone ex-president Charles Taylor with arms and ammunition – which the latter used for perpetrating war crimes – and also supplied weapons to warlords in Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo to Sudan and Libya.

News agencies from West Asia claimed he was a gun-runner for al-Qaeda and the Taliban, an accusation Bout denies and says that he only supplied to commanders fighting the Taliban.

Bout also claims that he helped the France transport goods to Rwanda after the genocide and also claims to have transported UN peacekeepers.

(with inputs from BBC and the Economic Times)

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first published:December 08, 2022, 18:57 IST
last updated:December 08, 2022, 20:05 IST