PHOENIX — Authorities announced Tuesday that WNBA star Brittney Griner could be extradited back to Russia due to a parole violation.
Griner, who was paroled from a Russian prison following a high-profile prisoner swap arranged by the Biden Administration, previously served several months of a nine year sentence detained by Russian authorities over a charge of smuggling a small amount of hash oil into the country. As a condition of her release, she has been monitored by Maricopa County probation services. Officials in Maricopa report that she recently tested positive for marijuana during a routine drug screening, a violation of the terms of her Russian probation.
“We reported the violation, as we would have any other routine probation violation,” a spokesperson from Maricopa County stated. “It’s now up to Russia to decide if they want to extradite Ms. Griner back to Russia to finish serving her nine year sentence, which is entirely their right to request, or if they’ll play a cooler hand.”
Griner has a medical exemption to use marijuana in Arizona, but her subsequent probation terms have rendered that exemption null.
“Russian authorities made it very clear that Ms. Griner should steer clear of the chronic bubonic while under terms of parole, a mandate that Ms. Griner clearly did not take seriously,” observed Randall Kirger, a custodian at Brown Valley School of Law in Clunge, Virginia.
The WNBA and Phoenix Mercury have yet to comment on the developing story.
Brown Valley Observer 