American basketball star Brittney Grainer has been transferred to a penal colony in Mordovia, a source familiar with the case told Reuters today.

Grainer was sentenced in August to nine years in prison on drug trafficking charges after she was arrested in February at a Moscow airport where marijuana cartridges were found in her luggage. On November 4, she was transferred from the pre-trial detention center where she was kept in the Moscow region to a prison of unknown location.

The Russian authorities did not provide information about where she was for two weeks, but the source said that Greiner was transferred to the women’s colony IK-2 in Java, about 500 km southeast of Moscow.

The penal colony is located in Mordovia, the same region where another American, Paul Whelan, is serving a 16-year sentence in another prison after being convicted of espionage, which he denies.

Asked about Greiner’s case, a State Department spokesman said, “We are aware of reports of her whereabouts and are in frequent contact with Ms. Greiner’s legal team.”

“However, the Russian Federation has not yet provided official information about such a transfer of an American citizen, against which we strongly protest. The Embassy continues to press for more information about her transfer and her current whereabouts.”

Prisoners in Russian penal colonies are forced to work long hours for meager wages doing tedious manual labor such as sewing. Former prisoners and human rights groups describe conditions there as harsh and unsanitary, with limited access to medical care.

Russia and the United States discussed trading Greiner and Whelan, a former US Marine, for a Russian arms dealer imprisoned in the United States, but a deal fell through amid heightened tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In court, Greiner, who played in the off-season in the United States for the Russian team, said that she used cannabis to relieve sports injuries, but did not intend to break the law and made an honest mistake. .

Source: MONKEY BEE