A Russian court on Tuesday dismissed American basketball star Brittney Griner’s appeal against a nine-year sentence for possessing and smuggling vape cartridges containing cannabis oil.
The White House reacted by calling it a “sham trial”, and called for her immediate release.
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, was arrested on February 17 at a Moscow airport, a week before Russia invaded Ukraine, and her case has inevitably been viewed in this context and the ensuing crisis in US-Russian relations. The US chargee d’affaires in Moscow, Elizabeth Rood, who attended the hearing, called the sentence “excessive and disproportionate”.
Griner and her lawyers had asked for an acquittal or at least a reduction in her sentence, which they said was disproportionate to the offence and at odds with Russian judicial practices.
US fury
The presiding judge said the verdict was upheld “without changes” except for the time served in the pre-trial detention as part of her sentence.
The United States reacted to the verdict with anger.
“We are aware of the news out of Russia that Brittney Griner will continue to be wrongfully detained under intolerable circumstances after having to undergo another sham judicial proceeding today,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement.
Sullivan said President Joe Biden insists Griner should be “released immediately” and made it clear to Moscow that the US government is, “willing to go to extraordinary lengths and make tough decisions to bring Americans home.”
‘Severe and cruel’ sentence
The Russian state prosecutor said Griner’s August 4 sentence of nine years in a penal colony was “fair”, but Alexander Boykov, one of her lawyers, told the court:
“No judge, hand on heart, will honestly say that Griner’s nine-year sentence is in line with Russian criminal law.”
He listed a series of what he said were procedural flaws in Griner’s conviction and requested an acquittal, but asked that “if the court wants to punish her, [it should] give her a new, ‘fair’ verdict and mitigate the punishment”.
“The severity and cruelty of the sentence applied to Griner shocks people around the world,” he said.
Used cannabis oil to relieve pain
Permitted to make a final statement to the judges by live video link from her detention centre in the town of Novoye Grishino, just outside Moscow, Griner said how stressful her eight-month detention and two trials had been.
“People with more severe crimes have gotten less than what I was given,” she said.
Griner apologised for what she said was an honest mistake, as she had at her original trial, saying: “I did not intend to do this”, and asking the court to take into account the fact that she had pleaded guilty.
She has said she used medical cannabis to relieve the pain from a series of sports injuries. Both recreational and medicinal use of marijuana is illegal in Russia.
When asked if she had understood the verdict, she merely replied “Yes”.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)
