US basketball star Brittney Griner has been released in a prisoner swap with Russia and is now in US custody, a US official said on Thursday.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke by phone with Griner, the official said, adding that she was in good spirits.
Biden was to make remarks at 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT), the White House said. The swap involved former arms dealer Viktor Bout, CNN reported.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that it traded Griner for Russian citizen Viktor Bout in a prisoner swap. Bout's exchange with Griner took place at Abu Dhabi airport on Dec. 8, Russian news agencies reported.
Some have claimed that Griner's detention was on made-up charges and was designed to embarrass the US government over the ongoing tensions surrounding the war in Ukraine and to extract a concession on the scale of releasing Bout. A similar case involving the detention of Israeli Naama Issachar took place in 2019. She was charged and imprisoned over the alleged use of cannabis while traveling through Sheremetyevo Airport on her way from India. She was later released in a deal brokered by then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who even made a stopover in Moscow while on a diplomatic visit so that she could board his fight back to Israel.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
