The court in Krasnogorsk, on the outskirts of Moscow, rejected an appeal by American basketball player Brittney Griner against her nine-year sentence for drug possession and trafficking. At a hearing that lasted a little over half an hour, the court rejected the athlete’s lawyers’ request for her sentence to be canceled or at least shortened. The defense argued that the sentence of nine years imprisonment imposed was disproportionately harsh for possession of a vape device with cannabis oil in it.
The 32-year-old Brittney Griner was detained on February 17 at the Moscow airport after the banned substances were found in her luggage. In August, the court, after a six-month detention, imposed an effective prison sentence on her. That sentence was upheld after today’s hearing, which the basketball player joined via an Internet connection.
Lawyers of Brittney Griner, a two-time Olympic champion with Team USA, said they were not giving up hope that their client could be returned to the United States in a prisoner exchange. The authorities in Washington promised to continue working with the Russian side for the release of the “unlawfully detained” Brittney Griner, said White House spokesman Jake Sullivan.
Brittney Griner is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). In February 2022, she was detained by Russian customs after cartridges containing less than a gram of hashish oil were found in her luggage, and later arrested on drug charges. She had been entering Russia to play with the Russian Premier League during the WNBA offseason. Her trial began on July 1, and she pled guilty to the charges. On August 4, she was sentenced to nine years in prison.
