She’s right where she needs to be.

I hope she serves every day of he sentence... and has to pay the money before being let out... and does not ever come back to America

In a statement immediately after the sentencing, Biden said: 'Russia is wrongfully detaining Brittney. It’s unacceptable, and I call on Russia to release her immediately so she can be with her wife, loved ones, friends, and teammates.'


Guess my question would be what is "wrongful" about the detention of someone who plead guilty?

Hope that guy rots, and it is a guy, not a woman.

Her gender doesn't matter. Her stance on the national anthem doesn't matter. What does matter is that she, just like every other person who has found themselves in a similar situation, knew she was breaking the law and was stupid enough to think the country she was visiting wouldn't care. This is an important concept but apparently difficult for some to grasp. When a country has strict laws concerning the importation and distribution of drugs, don't bring drugs into that country. If a country offers prison time for public intoxication, you probably should curb your urge to drink. Do stupid things, win stupid prizes.
Americans and Canadians in the middle east often have trouble figuring this stuff out. My Dad once probably saved a woman's life, in northern Iraq, just by squeezing her arm and telling her to just keep her effing mouth shut or the tribesmen would probably drag her off the bus; they being unenlightened regarding feminine rights and privileges as espoused by this stupid cow.
In general, if you don't like the way a given country does things, don't go there. If you do go there, don't assume you are special. Griner did that and should get to learn a lesson. GD

Her gender doesn't matter. Her stance on the national anthem doesn't matter. What does matter is that she, just like every other person who has found themselves in a similar situation, knew she was breaking the law and was stupid enough to think the country she was visiting wouldn't care. This is an important concept but apparently difficult for some to grasp. When a country has strict laws concerning the importation and distribution of drugs, don't bring drugs into that country. If a country offers prison time for public intoxication, you probably should curb your urge to drink. Do stupid things, win stupid prizes.
Americans and Canadians in the middle east often have trouble figuring this stuff out. My Dad once probably saved a woman's life, in northern Iraq, just by squeezing her arm and telling her to just keep her effing mouth shut or the tribesmen would probably drag her off the bus; they being unenlightened regarding feminine rights and privileges as espoused by this stupid cow.
In general, if you don't like the way a given country does things, don't go there. If you do go there, don't assume you are special. Griner did that and should get to learn a lesson. GD

She's FAR from the first to get caught and convicted for running afoul of the laws while outside of the U.S. and sentenced to do hard time in that country's prison. She's just someone that believes because of her celebrity status she is special therefore expects special consideration above and beyond that of common offenders.

I hope she serves every day of he sentence... and has to pay the money before being let out... and does not ever come back to America

Her gender doesn't matter. Her stance on the national anthem doesn't matter. What does matter is that she, just like every other person who has found themselves in a similar situation, knew she was breaking the law and was stupid enough to think the country she was visiting wouldn't care. This is an important concept but apparently difficult for some to grasp. When a country has strict laws concerning the importation and distribution of drugs, don't bring drugs into that country. If a country offers prison time for public intoxication, you probably should curb your urge to drink. Do stupid things, win stupid prizes.
Americans and Canadians in the middle east often have trouble figuring this stuff out. My Dad once probably saved a woman's life, in northern Iraq, just by squeezing her arm and telling her to just keep her effing mouth shut or the tribesmen would probably drag her off the bus; they being unenlightened regarding feminine rights and privileges as espoused by this stupid cow.
In general, if you don't like the way a given country does things, don't go there. If you do go there, don't assume you are special. Griner did that and should get to learn a lesson. GD

E X A C T L Y !!!


Waiting for his-higness, LeBron, to add his two-cents worth. Maybe that old geezer, Al Sharpton, too.

She din do nuffin . . . . . . .

That is a man

She won't the Russians gave her a particularly harsh sentence in order to gain even more leverage to trade for that arms merchant we have in jail. She'll be home before the leaves fall. She's a triple whammy (black, female, dyke) protected class. The good news is that we'll also get that former Marine that's also being held

Sorry to disagree but I believe her stance on the national anthem does matter. Especially when it is that country, whose national anthem you hate, that can get you out of the fix you got yourself into.

She won't the Russians gave her a particularly harsh sentence in order to gain even more leverage to trade for that arms merchant we have in jail. She'll be home before the leaves fall. She's a triple whammy (black, female, dyke) protected class. The good news is that we'll also get that former Marine that's also being held

She does kinda look like a Possum.....

Man body with slight female facial features and no beard growth with a va jay jay and maybe a small cock above it.
????

Probably would dna/ chromosome test out as a man.

Most def a mixed race genetic freak and a shining example of LBJ,s great society in many aspects.


It will be home soon enough and will do all the Liberal Socialist Democrat daytime talk shows.
Write a book and be a NYT bestseller.
It will be lionized by the Liberal Socialist Democrats.





And it's all President Trump's fault of course that it got in trouble in Russia....
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

For Your Consideration

Each year, 2,500 U.S. citizens are arrested abroad. One-third of the arrests are on drug-related charges. Many of those arrested assumed that as a U.S. citizen they could not be arrested. From Asia to Africa, Europe to South America, U.S. citizens are finding out the hard way that drug possession or trafficking equals jail in foreign countries.

There is very little that anyone can do to help you if you are caught with drugs. You are operating under the laws of the host country and the regulations of the local institution. Neither the U.S. government nor Arizona State University will be able to secure your release should you be caught.

It is your responsibility to know the drug laws of a foreign country before you go, because saying "I didn't know it was illegal" will not get you out of jail. Some laws may be applied more strictly to foreigners than to local citizens; therefore, don't assume that just because local people are using drugs, it's acceptable for you to use drugs.

In recent years, U.S. Americans have been arrested abroad on drug charges for possession of an ounce or less of marijuana. The risk of being put in jail for just one marijuana cigarette, or for other illegal substances, is not worth it.

If you are purchasing prescription medications in quantities larger than that considered necessary for personal use, you could be arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking.

Once you're arrested, the U.S. consular officer CANNOT get you out of jail!

You may say "it couldn't happen to me," but the fact is that it could happen to you if you find yourself saying one of the following:

"I am a U.S. citizen and no foreign government can put me in their jail."
"If I only buy or carry a small amount, it won't be a problem."

If you are caught using illegal drugs by ASU faculty/staff or other on-site personnel, you may be immediately dismissed from the Global Education program. If you are caught by local authorities buying, selling, carrying, or using drugs - from hashish to heroin, marijuana to mescaline, cocaine to quaaludes, to designer drugs like ecstasy - it could mean:

interrogation and delays before trial, including mistreatment and solitary confinement for up to one year under very primitive conditions and delays before trial including mistreatment and solitary confinement for up to one year under very primitive conditions
lengthy trials conducted in a foreign language, with delays and postponements
weeks, months, or life in prison (some places include hard labor, heavy fines, and/or lashings), if found guilty
the death penalty in a growing number of countries

Although drug laws vary from country to country, it is important to realize before you make the mistake of getting involved with drugs that foreign countries do not react lightly to drug offenders. In some countries, anyone who is caught with even a very small quantity for personal use may be tried and receive the same sentence as the large-scale trafficker.

A few words to the wise...

A number of countries have enacted more stringent drug laws that impose mandatory jail sentences for individuals convicted of possessing even small amounts of marijuana or cocaine for personal use.
Once you leave the United States, you are not protected by U.S. laws and constitutional rights.
Bail is not granted in many countries when drugs are involved.
The burden of proof in many countries is on the accused to prove his/her innocence.
In some countries, evidence obtained illegally by local authorities may be admissible in court.
Few countries offer drug offenders jury trials or even require the prisoner's presence at his/her trial.
Many countries have mandatory prison sentences of seven years to life without the possibility of parole for drug violations.
If someone offers you a free trip and some quick and easy money for just bringing back a suitcase...SAY NO!
Don't carry a package for anyone, no matter how small it might seem.
The police and customs officials have a right to search your luggage for drugs. If they find drugs in your suitcase, YOU will suffer the consequences.
You could go to jail for years with no possibility of parole, early release, or transfer back to the United States.
Don't make a jail sentence part of your ASU Global Education experience.

About Medical Marijuana

According to U.S. Federal law you cannot fly on a commercial airliner with marijuana or marijuana-containing products, even if you have a doctor's written prescription for medical marijuana or an Arizona Medical Marijuana Program ID Card. Possession of marijuana in a U.S airport, in U.S. airspace or on an airplane carries a punishment of up to one year in jail and a minimum fine of $1,000 for a first conviction. For each subsequent conviction, the sentences and penalties increase.

In addition, many countries consider marijuana to be illegal. Students with a U.S. prescription for marijuana can be arrested, prosecuted, and/or deported, if in possession of an illegal substance abroad. Never travel internationally with any amount of medical marijuana unless you want to take the risk of being detained, arrested and charged, deported, missing your flight, and having your medicine confiscated.

July 28, 2022

At least 67 U.S. citizens are being detained overseas unjustly, advocates say.


In September 2016, Kai Li stepped off a plane from the United States to his native China to visit relatives and attend a memorial for his late mother. He never returned.

The Chinese government had imprisoned the 59-year-old Li, an act the United Nations has condemned, and which his family says is based on bogus charges of espionage. A U.S. citizen who lived in Long Island, New York, since 1989, Li is only allowed to call his wife and son once a month for conversations that last just minutes.

His six-year absence has been "devastating," said Harrison Li, his son. Not only did it throw his family into debt, but it also forced them to shutter two gas stations Li owned and operated as a way to make his family prosper in his adopted country, he said.

"Our government has failed us by allowing this to continue for so long," he said. "They need to find the will and motivation to get him released."
MORE: US proposes releasing Russian arms dealer to free Griner and Whelan: Sources

Li joins the chorus of dozens of families who say the Biden administration is failing to adequately confront a crisis that experts say is only getting worse. According to the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, a Washington organization that advocates for hostages and journalist safety, at least 67 U.S. citizens are currently being held overseas; 90% of those are wrongly detained by foreign governments hostile to the U.S.
PHOTO: An undated photo shows Kai Li, a U.S. citizen from New York, who has been detained by China since 2016.
An undated photo shows Kai Li, a U.S. citizen from New York, who has been detained by China since 2016.
Courtesy Li family

Cynthia Loertscher, director of research, hostage advocacy and legislative affairs for the Foley foundation, says there is a greater interest among countries like Venezuela, Russia and China to use U.S. citizens as "geopolitical pawns" whose imprisonments can be leveraged to demand change in U.S. policy or to force concessions like a prisoner exchange.

"They become human collateral to try to get the United States to budge on its policies on a very large scale which is why these cases are so difficult to solve," Loertscher said. The problem, she said, "is absolutely" worsening as an increasing number of countries are testing the waters for potential gain.

Last week, President Joe Biden issued an executive order that allows federal agencies to impose financial sanctions and other consequences on parties involved in hostage-taking or wrongful detentions. It also creates a new State Department indicator to alert Americans where there’s a risk of being wrongfully detained by a foreign government.

Loertscher said the new tools show the administration is taking the issue seriously, but it is too soon to tell of its lasting effect considering the order did not name specific countries or cases like Li's.

For Neda Sharghi, whose brother Emad has been wrongfully detained in Iran since 2018, she says nothing short of meeting with Biden directly will be satisfactory. Emad Sharghi, an American-Iranian dual citizen based in Washington, is one of at least four Americans wrongfully detained in Iran currently. Months after his capture more than four years ago, he was released, but not allowed to leave the country.

Two months before Biden took office, Emad Sharghi was rearrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison for charges that remain unclear to his family.

Neda Sharghi said her family has written to Biden but have not received a response. She said the issue "transcends politics" and should be one that both political parties could work on together.

Holding people captive fraudulently "cuts against every principle we as Americans hold onto," Sharghi said. "It’s baffling to me why it’s so difficult to get them released and why it isn’t a more focused priority for our administration," she said.

A senior State Department official would not discuss specific cases with ABC News, but said that the new executive order is an example of the administration being "willing to make tough but important decisions" on the issue.

"Anyone who has worked on these issues for any period of time knows that strategies need to be case specific. They have to be informed by the intelligence and information about a particular case. They need to take into account country-specific facts, regional facts and anything we can bring to bear to get what we all ultimately want, which is an American home with his or her loved ones," the official said.

Biden recently met with the families of Austin Tice, detained in Syria since 2012, and Trevor Reed, who was recently released from Russia in a prisoner exchange. Families say the media attention thrust on both cases, along with that of basketball star Brittney Griner, detained in Russia on drug charges, are bringing public awareness to an issue that for so many years has been lost in the news cycle.
PHOTO: Brittney Griner holds images standing in a cage at a court room prior to a hearing, in Khimki just outside Moscow, July 26, 2022.
Brittney Griner holds images standing in a cage at a court room prior to a hearing, in Khimki just outside Moscow, July 26, 2022.
Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP, POOL

For Alexandra Forseth, the "biggest obstacles" for families like her own "is not the government holding our own people -- it’s our own government."
MORE: Brittney Griner testifies in Russian court as US works to secure her release

Her father, Alirio Zambrano, and uncle, Jose Luis Zambrano, are members of the so-called "Citgo 6," a group of Houston-based Citgo oil executives imprisoned in Venezuela since 2017 on corruption charges. Last year, the men were released under house arrest but in November were suddenly sent back to prison where conditions are so poor their families say they must purchase their clothes and food and ferry them in through intermediaries.

The arrests came around the same time the U.S. extradited a Colombian financier with close ties to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. In February, a Venezuelan court upheld the executives' prison sentences.

In March, the Biden administration announced the release of one member of the Citgo 6, Gustavo Cardenas, along with another American held in the country, Jorge Fernandez.

“We did get a couple of Americans out and that was a great thing,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters this month regarding the release of the men. “But it was bittersweet because there's a lot of Americans still there, and we've got to get them home.”
MORE: 3 more Americans detained in Venezuela since early this year, State Department confirms

Forseth said her family has been working closely with Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs (SPEHA), a special State Department position created during the Obama years. While Carstens has "unanimous support" by the families, she said he and others working on their behalf are ultimately hindered by bureaucracy.

The characterization is supported by Loertscher who said these efforts ultimately need the full support of the administration to be fully effective.

"There are some people absolutely working their tails off for us. They are going way above what to do, but there are some people who are full-on obstacles to making creative solutions because don’t want to bring up these men as priorities to the president," Forseth said.

"The short answer is, I’m mad at the people who won’t allow the negotiating process to be dynamic and swift," she said.
MORE: Biden 'may have saved Trevor's life': Former Marine's family speaks out

Families banded by Bring Our Family Home, an organization tasked to raise the profile of the missing, unveiled a block-long mural in Washington last week that features the portraits of 18 loved ones being detained by foreign governments, including Griner and the Citgo 6.

"We would love it if President Biden came to look at it and hopefully inspire him to reach out and want to meet with us," said Sharghi.

The project is also a catalyst for hope, something Li said, for him, is in short commodity over the years.

"There’s always hope and hope always gets dashed," he said. "My father is still suffering behind bars."

June 17, 2022


Mark Fogel was detained in August 2021 upon his arrival with his wife in Moscow from New York.

A former employee of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow has been handed a 14-year prison term in Russia for illegal drug trafficking after he was caught entering the country with medical marijuana he says was prescribed to him after back surgery.

A court in the town of Khimki near Moscow said on June 17 that U.S. citizen Marc Fogel, who works as a teacher at the Anglo-American School in the Russian capital, was sentenced the day before.

According to the court statement, Fogel, who was detained in August last year upon his arrival with his wife in Moscow from New York, pleaded guilty.

Fogel says he had medical papers explicitly showing the marijuana was prescribed by doctors and that it was solely for medical use.

Fogel was quoted at the time as saying that he had not known that medical marijuana was illegal in Russia. His lawyers said then that Russian authorities had found 17 grams of marijuana in his possession.

U.S. officials have yet to comment on Fogel's sentencing.

Fogel is one of several Americans incarcerated in Russia in recent years on charges that their families, supporters, and in some cases the U.S. government, have said appear trumped up.

Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan was sentenced by a court in Moscow to 16 years in prison in May 2020 on espionage charges condemned by the United States as a "mockery of justice."

Another former U.S. Marine, Trevor Reed, was sentenced to nine years in prison in July 2020 after being arrested and charged with assaulting two Russian police officers in 2019, which he denied. He was released in a prisoner swap in April.

Another American whose detention by Russian authorities has drawn criticism is basketball star Brittney Griner. She was arrested in February at a Moscow airport after the authorities said a scan of her luggage revealed vape cartridges containing hash oil.

Griner, who played for a Russian professional basketball team, could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted on illegal drug charges. She has pleaded not guilty and the United States has designated her as "wrongfully detained."

I don't think anybody deserves to spend nine years in a Russian prison because they got caught with weed.

She’s right where she needs to be.

She won't the Russians gave her a particularly harsh sentence in order to gain even more leverage to trade for that arms merchant we have in jail. She'll be home before the leaves fall. She's a triple whammy (black, female, dyke) protected class. The good news is that we'll also get that former Marine that's also being held

Russia is as corrupt as they come. Trouble now is it’s an international story.

Still, Lebron probably has enough cash to get her home.

Funny how the left is now ok with putting a world arms dealer back in business.

Maybe even an Iran Hostage thing where they keep her and release her to the new incoming President in 2024-5as a big FU-JB.