The player of baloncesto United States Brittney Griner He assured that during his detention in Russiawhere she remained from February to December 2022 after being arrested for drug possession, He lived a complete hell.
There were “spider nests” and blood stains on the bed, he said in an exclusive interview broadcast by the North American network ABC.
“The mattress had a huge blood stain and they give you very thin sheets, so you’re practically lying on bars,” Griner said.
The American claimed to feel “less than human” during her stay in a Russian prison.
“When we walk into the cell, there’s a bathroom,” Griner explained.
“There’s a small, beat-up sink that leaks and then adds a layer of dust, dirt, grime, blood stains. Just dirt,” he continued.
“One of my shirts, I tore it up and used one to clean myself. I used one as toilet paper. There was a dirty hole in the floor with feces everywhere.”
“That was the moment I felt dirtiest and less than human.”
Griner thought about taking his own life
Brittney Griner, the American basketball star who was imprisoned in Russia for 10 months in 2022, has given her first interviews since her release as part of a prisoner exchange, and has revealed that she had thought about suicide while in prison.
Griner was arrested in February 2022 at a Moscow airport after Russian authorities said a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges containing cannabis oil. She subsequently pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison.
“I wanted to kill myself more than once during the first few weeks,” Griner told ABC in a separate interview. “I really wanted to get out of there.” She decided against it in part because he feared Russian authorities would not release his body to her family.
The American also assured that she decided to cut her hair because her dreadlocks were freezing. “It was something she had to go through. We had spiders on top of my bed making nests. My dreadlocks started freezing and they would stay wet and cold, so she would get sick,” Griner said. “You have to do what you have to do to survive,” she added.
His release was granted after the US government struck a deal with Russia in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
He also said he was ordered to write a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin during his ordeal.
“They made me write this letter. It was in Russian,” he said.
“I had to say sorry and thank you to their supposedly great leader. I didn’t want to do it, but at the same time I wanted to go home.”
Since then, the Phoenix Mercury player promised that she would no longer play abroad unless it was with the United States national team.
Brittney Griner – basketball player USA plane -ap
Russian Federal Security Service via AP
