Brittney Griner moves to Russian penal colony; exact location unknown

According to her Russian legal team, she is in the process of being transferred to a Russian penal colony, but they don't know where she is or where she is going.

The transfer began Friday, her lawyers said, a day after U.S. embassy officials visited her. Her attorneys had said that a transfer can take weeks or months. Attorneys and U.S. officials didn't know she had been moved until Tuesday.

According to her lawyers, "Notification is given via official mail and usually takes up to two weeks to be received."

The Moscow jail where she has been held has harsher conditions than the Russian colonies.

Lindsay Kagawa Colas, Griner's agent, said in a statement that their main concern was his health and well-being. We need the public's support in continuing to write letters and express their love and care for her as we work through this very difficult phase of not knowing where she is or how she is doing.

Colas' team is in close contact with the U.S. government and the Richardson Center. The State Department and Richardson are working together to find her and bring her home.

We are thankful for everyone's support, and hope that as we near nine months of imprisonment, that we will be shown mercy and returned to our families for the holiday season.

The last time anyone from outside the jail spoke to her was on Thursday. She didn't see her lawyers the day before.

Her family didn't make a statement late Tuesday in the US.

The drug smuggler pleaded guilty. The US declared in May that she was being wrongly held and called her trial. Two weeks ago, an appeals court upheld her conviction, compounding the injustice of her imprisonment.

In June, the U.S. made a "serious" offer to trade for Griner's freedom, but have yet to receive a legitimate counteroffer. After Tuesday's elections, officials hoped that Russia would be more willing to negotiate in good faith, knowing that Putin's government wouldn't want Biden to win.

She was arrested at a Moscow airport while trying to get into Russia to play for her club team.

There will be no further statements from her family or her legal team at this time.