The WNBA star’s lawyers tell PEOPLE they delivered “many” letters from family, friends and fans all over the world to her on Tuesday
Lawyers representing Brittney Griner say the WNBA star’s birthday was “difficult” as she turned 32 years old while still in Russian confinement on Tuesday.
“It was an unusual birthday today,” Maria Blagovolina, one of Griner’s lawyers and a partner at Rybalkin Gortsunyan Dyakin and Partners, tells PEOPLE.
Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, who also represents Griner, visited her in prison on Tuesday.
Griner is “very strong” says Blagovolina, before adding that Tuesday was “of course a difficult day for her, you can imagine because she is all alone in a jail in a foreign country.”
Griner’s lawyers delivered her numerous letters of support during their visit. “We brought her a lot of letters, birthday messages from all over the world, from her family, from friends, her team; and that was very important for her.”
Griner’s lawyers say she “very much appreciates the support and love she’s been getting,” and was “really happy to receive” the letters. “She feels the support. So this was good.”
They had trouble guessing the exact number of letters Griner received, from “both athletes and regular people all around the world” because, her lawyers say, “we’re still getting them. Many, many, many.”
Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison on Aug. 4 on charges of smuggling drugs into the country, just below the maximum sentence of 10 years.
After the trial, Blagovolina had said the sentence was “absolutely unreasonable.” The athlete’s lawyers filed an appeal, and hearings for that will begin Oct. 25.
Blagovolina had previously told PEOPLE that they don’t know if the appeal will be successful — and historically, appeals have not done much to change Russian prison sentences — but said that they have to try.
Now, she imagines that her client is “expecting something to happen every day.” Blagovolina tells PEOPLE, “It has been three months, two months, three months, since the sentence and nothing has happened.”
As time continues to pass, Griner is becoming increasingly “more anxious and worried,” her lawyers say.
At this time, Griner is living in a detention center that is part of the prison penal colony as she awaits her hearing and any news on a potential prisoner exchange between Russia and the U.S.
There is still hope that Griner will be part of a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia. In July, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Biden administration said that they are in discussions with Russia to swap the WNBA star and Paul Whelan, another American imprisoned in the country, for a not-yet-named Russian prisoner held in the U.S.
For now though, the two-time Olympic gold medalist doesn’t know what will happen next. She could be exchanged, or the appeal hearings could finally begin, or she could live out her next nine years in a Russian penal colony.
When Griner heard about the potential exchange, she was “quite happy to know that she’s not been forgotten and that there are some possible developments,” Blagovolina previously told PEOPLE. “But she’s quite realistic about what’s going on.”
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