The United States has secured the release of Brittney Griner

The United States and Russia have agreed on a prisoner swap: basketball star Brittney Griner has been released from a Russian prison in exchange for the release of Russian arms dealer Victor Bout, who was serving a prison sentence in the United States.

The exchange took place this morning in Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital, and Brittney Griner is flying to the United States. After Griner was released, President Joe Biden called.

“She’s safe. She is on the plane,” the president wrote on Twitter.

In August, Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in a maximum-security penal colony on drug charges. She was detained at a Moscow airport in February 2022 because of vape cartridges containing cannabis oil found in her luggage.

The substance is illegal in Russia, but legal in some U.S. states.

In early August 2022, a court in Khimki found Greiner guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced her to nine years in prison. The basketball player appealed her conviction. The court refused to lessen the sentence but reduced it to eight years, taking into account the time Greiner spent in pre-trial detention.

Brittney Griner played for UMMC Yekaterinburg women’s basketball club. As a member of the U.S. national team, she won the Olympics twice.

Victor Bout was arrested at the US request in 2008 and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012.