The lawyer said the American basketball star is allowed outside once a day and she walks for an hour in a small courtyard. Griner stays in a small cell with two cellmates, Boykov said. The 6-foot-9 WNBA star, who is in her ninth month in detention after facing drug charges in Russia, has been given a bed to accommodate her height, her attorney adds.

“She is not yet absolutely convinced that America will be able to take her home,” Boykov said. “She is very worried about what the price of that will be, and she is afraid that she will have to serve the whole sentence here in Russia.”

Griner was detained at an airport near Moscow in February after being accused of carrying two vape cartridges with hashish oil in her luggage. She was sentenced to nine years in prison in August.

Boykov said it has been difficult to organize phone calls with Griner’s wife, Cherelle. The American star has also been unable to speak to her parents or siblings since her detention, the attorney adds.

“She suffers a lot without her family because she hasn’t seen them for so long and it’s very difficult to talk to them in any way,” Boykov said.

Cherelle expressed her worry when she recently spoke with CBS Mornings. The devastated spouse said she spoke with Griner on the phone and realized that she’s struggling.

“You could hear that she was not OK. If you think about just a person’s suffering and when they have suffered to a max…she was at the max that day,” Cherelle told CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King.

Cherelle said she’s still hoping for the U.S. to negotiate a prisoner swap with Russia and free Griner. The anxious wife adds that President Joe Biden is doing what he can to resolve the situation.

“But there’s another party in this situation, and we also are dealing with the need for Russia to have mercy on B.G. as well,” Cherelle said.