The US and Russia have exchanged jailed US basketball star Brittney Griner for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Bout had been held in an American prison for 12 years. President Joe Biden said Griner was safe and on a plane home from the United Arab Emirates.

“I’m glad to say Brittney’s in good spirits… she needs time and space to recover,” he said at the White House.

Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February for possessing cannabis oil and last month sent to a penal colony. The Biden administration proposed a prisoner exchange last July, aware Moscow had long sought Bout’s release.

Russia’s foreign ministry confirmed the swap and said it had taken place at Abu Dhabi airport. “The Russian citizen has been returned to his homeland,” it said in a statement, although he was not yet thought to have arrived on Russian soil.

During the US basketball season she is a star centre for Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA. Her only reason for flying to Moscow was to play in Russia during the off-season in the US. She told her Russian trial that the cannabis oil found in her bag had been an “honest mistake”.