(C) Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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U.S. Basketball Star Griner Sentenced To 9 Years By Russian Court [1]
['Rfe Rl']
Date: 2022-08
A Russian court has found U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced her to 9 years in prison, saying she deliberately brought vape cartridges with cannabis oil into Russia when she arrived to join her team in the country.
The court in the Moscow suburb of Khimki added in reading out the verdict that the 31-year-old Griner must pay a fine of 1 million rubles ($16,300). Prosecutors had requested that the court sentence her to 9 1/2 years in prison. The maximum sentence allowed under Russian law is 10 years.
In a rare move, U.S. President Joe Biden issued a statement immediately after the sentence was announced, saying it was "one more reminder of what the world already knew: Russia is wrongfully detaining Brittney."
"It’s unacceptable, and I call on Russia to release her immediately so she can be with her wife, loved ones, friends, and teammates," the statement said.
In her final statement to the court on August 4, Griner said that she did not intend to break the law.
CNN quoted one of Griner's lawyers as saying they will appeal the ruling.
"I did not conspire or plan to commit this crime," Griner said.
"I have never meant to hurt anybody, to put in jeopardy the Russian population, to break laws," she said, adding that she hoped politics wouldn't play a part in the court's decision on the case.
Griner's lawyer also asked the court to treat her leniently.
The two-time Olympic champion has been detained in Russia since authorities said they found cannabis oil in vape cartridges in her luggage when she passed through Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport in February.
Cannabis is illegal in Russia for both medicinal and recreational purposes.
The case comes during the most strained U.S.-Russian relations since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and has put U.S. President Joe Biden under pressure to intervene on behalf of Americans detained in Russia, including Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan. The U.S. government has deemed both of them to have been "wrongfully detained."
Detained en route to join her Russian team, UMMC Ekaterinburg, after a brief trip home to the United States, Griner had pleaded guilty to the charge being in possession of the cannabis-oil cartridges, saying she must have accidentally packed them while rushing to the airport for her flight to Russia.
On July 29, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone to discuss a possible prisoner swap that could include Griner and Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
The call marked the highest-level known contact between Washington and Moscow since Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24.
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[1] Url:
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-griner-9-1-2-years-prison-cannabis-whelan/31973842.html
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