US basketball star Brittney Griner freed in prisoner swap
By DW
08 December 2022 |
3:28 pm
Russia has released the US basketball player, who had been serving a 9-year sentence in a penal colony, in exchange for a notorious arms dealer. US President Biden has said Griner is "on her way home."
In this article
Related
6 May 2021
Dozens of students were grabbed from a Nigerian college in March, sparking outcry. The last of them have now been freed.
16 May 2021
Days after their release from captivity, some of the students of the College of Forestry Mechanization in Kaduna are still in the hospital receiving treatment for different health issues.
16 Jun 2021
Ten captives taken by extremists in Nigeria are freed. The group had been held by ISWAP militants, who have killed hostages in the past. Also, we look at the tourism industry in Ethiopia ahead of June 21 regional elections. The sector has been hit hard by the conflict in the Tigray region and the Covid-19 pandemic. And we see how a Chinese-funded harbour in Sierra Leone is stirring environmental fears.
NIGERIA
30 Aug 2021
Among those now free are some of the youngest children ever taken hostage in Nigeria, a group of 90 pupils who had spent three months in captivity. Hours after those youngsters were brought to the Niger state capital, police in Zamfara state said that 15 older students also had been freed there.
8 Sep 2021
Eighty political prisoners detained by Alpha Conde's government, including a number who had campaigned against his third term, were released on Tuesday (september 7) evening following a military coup which deposed the now former Guinean president.
Ismael Conde, a former member of Alpha Conde's party who rallied against a third term, left Conakry's central jail thanking the people of Guinea for his liberation and embracing a close relative before disapearing into the crowd.
14 Sep 2021
Officials in Nigeria have said the students were freed with the help of several of their captors who had been pressured by a military crackdown to work with authorities.
30 Sep 2021
Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have also returned home after over 1,000 days in Chinese custody as part of the US-brokered deal that saw the release of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou.
29 Jan 2022
FRANCE 24 spoke to Ramy Shaath, an Egytian-Palestinian activist who spent two and half years in jail in Egypt on accusations of aiding a terrorist group. He was a member of several secular political groups and a co-founder of the pro-Palestinian BDS movement. Shaath, who was never formally charged, described the conditions of his arrest, detention and finally his release from jail on January 8. He claimed "arbitrary detentions and arrests" increasingly account for "the majority" of inmates in Egyptian jails under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. He also said he understood that he was expected to keep silent following his release and had already received threats.
2 Apr 2022
Armed men kidnapped the MSF employees on Feb. 24 from the group's base in Cameroon's Far North region in Fotokol, which is near Nigeria and Chad. Those kidnapped and subsequently released include a Senegalese, Chadian and Franco-Ivorian along with their two Cameroon security guards.
9 Jul 2022
US gold medal Olympian Brittney Griner is on trial in Russia after police allegedly found cannabis vape canisters in her luggage. The basketball star said she had no intention of breaking the law.
29 Jul 2022
US top diplomat Antony Blinken will press Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on a proposal to release jailed Americans. It will be their first conversation since the start of Russia's Ukraine invasion in February.
Latest
1 day ago
Russian social media channels and media are sharing a doctored video that alleges Poland will form army units of "non-traditional orientation". We disprove these claims in this edition of Truth or Fake.
1 day ago
Germany recently said it will supply 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. Soon after that, videos surfaced online purporting to show the tanks already en route to the embattled country.
1 day ago
We look at reactions in the Israeli press after nine Palestinians were killed during a raid in the West Bank. Also, singer-songwriter Rod Stewart calls for a change of government in the UK.
1 day ago
Ankara cited recent anti-Muslim and anti-Turkish activities in Europe as reasons for the travel warning. The move comes after four European countries updated their travel advice for Turkey.
1 day ago
Lawmakers already voted to bring elections forward to April 2024 from 2026, in the face of unrelenting protests sparked by former President Pedro Castillo's arrest.