US basketball star Brittney Griner had an appeal against her nine-year jail term rejected by a Russian court.
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist with Team USA, was arrested at Moscow International airport in February after being accused of smuggling hashish oil in her luggage. She was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison - and the court near the capital upheld the sentence as a state prosecutor labelled it ‘fair’.
WNBA ace Griner apologised for her ‘honest mistake’ in her appeal hearing via video link. The 32-year-old’s lawyer, Alexander Boykov, declared no judge can genuinely believe the sentence is ‘in line with Russian criminal law’.
The White House labelled legal proceedings involving Griner a ‘sham’. The Biden administration is aware of the situation and are working to release Griner and have her return home to the States. President Joe Biden has called for her release immediately.
Griner had been in Russia playing for UMMC Ekaterinburg in the WNBA off-season, and has done since 2014. She was reportedly earning £1.1million for her performances - around six times her salary with the Phoenix Mercury.
She spoke to the appeals court of three judges remotely from her detention centre in a town near Moscow, telling the court: “I really hope that the court will adjust this sentence because it has been very very stressful and very traumatic. People with more severe crimes have gotten less than what I was given.”
The eight-time WNBA All-Star and former champion will serve the jail term in a penal colony.
Griner was detained on 17 February at an airport near Moscow when vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage as she was returning to the US at the end of the WNBA offseason. Her case has become something of a political chess game between the US and Russia, whose relations have deteriorated following Vladimir Putin ’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
In August, the Kremlin suggested the possibility of a prisoner swap between the US and Russia involving the basketball player and a sought after prisoner in American captivity, with Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout - dubbed the Merchant of Death - reported as a possible transfer.
