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WNBA star Brittney Griner freed in US-Russia prisoner swap

US Olympic basketball champion Brittney Griner attends the verdict announcement at the Khimki Municipal Court
US Olympic basketball champion Brittney Griner attends the verdict announcement at the Khimki Municipal Court
TASS

Brittney Griner is coming home.  Finally.

The WNBA star was recently freed from her months-long imprisonment in a prisoner swap between the United States and Russia.


To secure her freedom, the US released arms dealer Viktor Bout, once nicknamed the "Merchant of Death."

Per Fox News, President Biden spoke with Griner on the phone Thursday while her wife, Cherelle, was in the Oval Office.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also confirmed the swap Thursday, saying in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that the exchange took place in Abu Dhabi and that Bout has been flown home.

Griner was arrested at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow this past February after Russian authorities said she had vape cartridges with cannabis oil inside her luggage.

On August 4, Griner was given a nine-year sentence after pleading guilty, arguing that she had been prescribed cannabis for her pain and inadvertently packed it. Her sentence was upheld in October, and she was transferred to a penal colony.

Bout was in the middle of a 25-year sentence in federal prison after he was convicted of conspiracy to kill Americans relating to the support of a Colombian terrorist organization.

He was nicknamed the "Merchant of Death" due to his  notoriety for running a fleet of aging Soviet-era cargo planes to conflict-ridden hotspots in Africa. His dealings inspired the Nicolas Cage film Lord of War.

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