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It’s been over two years since Brittney Griner was freed from a Russian prison, and she is finally ready to talk about her experience.
Ahead of her Coming Home book release on May 7, the WNBA star sat down with Good Morning America‘s Robin Roberts for an interview that will air as a 20/20 special on May 1.
While the release may not be for another week, GMA previewed the conversation, in which Griner explained just how much she went through.
Back in February of 2020, Griner traveled to Russia to play for the professional basketball team UMMC Ekaterinburg. She was detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport for possessing hashish oil vape cartridges in her luggage because the drug was considered contraband.
Roberts asks her how she felt the moment she realized she wasn’t supposed to have the substance, and Griner says, “My life is over right here.”
Despite rumors that she knew she had the marijuana, Griner says she had no clue and had never brought any into the foreign country ever before.
She pled guilty to possession, and after standing trial, she was sentenced to nine years in what’s infamously known as one of the most horrid detainment centers in Russia.
“I was just so scared for everything because there’s so much unknown,” Griner told GMA’s Roberts.
She was then transferred to a women’s penal colony, commonly known as IK-2, where her living conditions were even worse.
“The mattress had a huge blood stain on it. I had no soap, no toilet paper. That was the moment where I just felt less than a human,” Griner said of the conditions.
In her interview with GMA, Griner says her mental health deteriorated so severely that she pondered suicide.
Upon her December 2022 release and homecoming, Griner prospered, rejoined the Phoenix Mercury, and was named a starter in the 2023 WNBA All-Star Game.
Brittney Griner To Open Up About Time In Russian Prison In New ABC Interview: “I Was Just So Scared For Everything” was originally published on cassiuslife.com
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