San Antonio, Dec 9 (AFP/APP): American basketball star Brittney Griner arrived in the United States Friday morning after being released from a Russian prison in exchange for an arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death.”
Griner, 32, who was arrested in Russia in February on drug charges, was seen by an AFP reporter walking across a runway after her plane landed in San Antonio, Texas.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby told NBC that Griner was in “very good spirits when she got off the plane and appeared to be obviously in good health.”
Griner will now be taken to a nearby military facility to make sure she has “all the access she needs to health care workers just to make sure that she is OK,” Kirby said.
Griner was exchanged in Abu Dhabi on Thursday for Viktor Bout, a 55-year-old Russian national who was serving a 25-year sentence in a US prison.
In footage released by Russian state media, Griner, shorn of her distinctive dreadlocks, and a relaxed and animated Bout crossed paths on the airport tarmac and headed towards the planes that would take them home.
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