A Russian court has ordered the deportation of U.S. citizen Sarah Krivanek, who spent almost 11 months in detention in Russia on charges of assaulting her Russian partner.
A court in the city of Ryazan, some 200 kilometers southeast of Moscow, ruled on November 10 that Krivanek must be deported.
Earlier this week, Krivanek was moved from a prison to a holding cell in Ryazan to await the court's decision on her possible deportation after the end of a 15-month prison term she was handed for assaulting her partner.
Krivanek, who is from Fresno, California, was sentenced last year after she hit her partner, a Russian man, with a knife. The American insists she was defending herself in a domestic violence situation. The man sustained minor injuries.
Krivanek complained that her stay in the prison was harsh, leaving her at times "fearing for my life" because of bullying from inmates and mistreatment from prison guards.
Krivanek is one of two American women known to be imprisoned in Russia. The other is professional basketball star Brittney Griner, who was sentenced in August to nine years in prison on a drug possession charge.
SEE ALSO: Biden Hopes Putin Will Negotiate WNBA Star Griner's ReleaseGriner's lawyers said on November 9 that their client had been moved to an unspecified prison days earlier after a Russian court last month rejected her appeal.
The United States has said it is trying to negotiate Griner's release. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement her transfer to a penal colony was “another injustice layered on her ongoing unjust and wrongful detention," and U.S. President Joe Biden said he hopes Russian President Vladimir Putin will be more willing to negotiate Griner’s release now that the U.S. midterm elections are over.
Russia has sentenced several U.S. citizens to prison terms in recent years.
Last month, a court in Russia's western city of Voronezh sentenced former U.S. Marine Robert Gilman to 4 1/2 years in prison for attacking a police officer while drunk.
Paul Whelan, another former U.S. Marine, is serving 16 years in prison on espionage charges, which he denies.
In April, Russia and the United States swapped Trevor Reed for a Russian pilot convicted of drug smuggling. Reed, also a former U.S. Marine, was sentenced to nine years in prison after allegedly attacking police officers while drunk.