WNBA star Brittney Griner has reportedly been moved to an unforgiving penal colony in Russia after her nine-year sentence.
According to the reports, the basketball star who was sentenced to nine years in prison after she was found guilty on drug charges was recently moved to IK-2 in Yavas, Mordovia.
The rat-infested penal colony is known for its terrible conditions and ill-treatment of inmates who are often beaten and forced to work for free for up to 18 hours a day.
“We can confirm that Brittney began serving her sentence at IK-2 in Mordovia. We visited her early this week. Brittney is doing as well as could be expected and trying to stay strong as she adapts to a new environment,” the athlete’s attorneys confirmed.
“Considering that this is a very challenging period for her, there will be no further comments from us.”
The move sparked fury among US officials who believe that Russia imposed an overly severe sentence to hold Griner as a ‘political prisoner’ amid tensions with the West.
“We are aware of reports of her location, and in frequent contact with Ms. Griner’s legal team. However, the Russian Federation has still failed to provide any official notification for such a move of a US citizen, which we strongly protest. The Embassy has continued to press for more information about her transfer and current location,” a spokesperson for the State Department confirmed.
According to the reports, the IK-2 is home to over 800 female inmates who live in barracks. The “corrective facility” is notorious for its poor living condition and forced labor, whereas some sources suggest inmates are used for slave labor for up to 18 hours per day.
“As the inmates say, ‘If you haven’t done time in Mordovia, you haven’t done time,” Pussy Riot founder and Putin critic Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said after she was jailed at neighboring IK-14.
Speaking of the harsh conditions inmates are subjected to in Mordovia facilities was also former deputy minister Gelena Alekseyeva who was jailed for three years back in 2013 for abetting bribery.
“When the girls find out that they’re going to Mordovia, they cut their wrists, do everything possible: get sick, swallow nails, just so they don’t have to go there,” she said.
She explained: “Mice lived with us. Rats lived with us in the industrial zone. Before you went into the bathroom, you needed to knock — there were special poles for that. So that the rats would scatter.
“There is nothing more dear to the inmates than these kittens and cats [stray cats introduced to the colony to combat rat populations]. But they can also be used for punishment. So, if you sewed badly today then [the guards] will burn the cats. They don’t punish one or two people — they punish a whole brigade.”
Yelena Federova, who was sentenced to 12 years for murder, added: “I repeatedly saw beaten women — young and old. They cried, begging for help. I went to [prison director] Yury Kupriyanov to put an end to this madness — end the beatings and uphold the law.”
The probe into the alleged beatings, however, was closed after no witnesses dared to speak up about the physical violence inside the prison.
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