US basketball player Brittney Griner
(Picture: REUTERS)US basketball star Brittney Griner has had an appeal against her nine-year prison sentence for drugs possession in Russia rejected.
The two-time Olympic gold medallist was arrested in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport after vape canisters containing hash oil were found in her luggage.
She was convicted and jailed on August 4 on charges of possessing and smuggling drugs.
A Russian court dismissed her appeal against the conviction during a hearing that took place via video link from her detention centre on Tuesday.
In the ruling the court stated, however, that the time Griner will have to serve in prison will be recalculated - with her time in pre-trial detention taken into account.
One day in pre-trial detention will be counted as 1.5 days in prison, so the basketball player will have to serve around eight years in prison.
Her lawyers Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov had asked for an acquittal or a reduction in her sentence, which they said was heavy-handed and at odds with Russian judicial practice.
Griner, 32, apologised for her “honest mistake” in her appeal hearing, saying it had been “very, very stressful”.
“No judge, hand on heart, will honestly say that Griner’s nine-year sentence is in line with Russian criminal law,” her lawyers told the court.
However, the court near Moscow upheld the sentence, with the state prosecutor calling it “fair”.
Griner pleaded guilty at her trial in August but said she had made an "honest mistake" and did not mean to break the law.
Washington officials say she was wrongfully detained and have offered to exchange her for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States.
Moscow has previously suggested it is open to a prisoner swap.
Bill Richardson, a former US ambassador to the United Nations who travelled to Moscow in September, said he believes Griner and former US Marine Paul Whelan could both be released by the end of the year.
A US consular officer spoke briefly on the phone with both detainees last Tuesday.
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Washington was working to free Griner and Whelan and there had been “active discussions, including in recent days”.
“We have not weighed in on the various judicial proceedings and judicial steps because as we’ve made clear, we believe that these proceedings have been largely shambolic,” Price told reporters at a press briefing.
