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US basketball star Brittney Griner appeals her nine-year prison sentence to Russian Justice

2022-08-15T12:52:21.332Z


The athlete said she had mistakenly put vaping cartridges with cannabis oil in her luggage. A Russian official confirmed on Sunday that talks have taken place between Russia and the United States to exchange prisoners.


By Jim Heintz

Associated Press

Lawyers for American basketball star Brittney Griner filed an appeal Monday against her nine-year prison sentence in Russia for cannabis possession, Russian news agencies reported.

Griner, center of the Phoenix Mercury and two-time Olympic champion, was sentenced on August 4 after being detained in February at the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, when the authorities found vaping cartridges with cannabis oil in his luggage.

Basketball player Brittney Griner listens behind bars to her conviction for drug possession in a Russian court on August 4, 2022. Evgenia Novozhenina / AP

The athlete played on a women's basketball team in Yekaterinburg during the WNBA offseason.

His lawyer Maria Blagovolina was quoted by Russian agencies on Monday confirming that the appeal had been filed, although she did not give details of its content.

Blagovolina and his partner Alexander Boykov said after the conviction that the sentence was excessive and that in similar cases defendants have received an average of about five years, with a third of them on probation.

[Basketball Player Brittney Griner Pleads Guilty to Drug Possession in Russia and Faces 10 Years]

Griner admitted that he had those cartridges in his luggage, but claimed that he had inadvertently packed them while packing in a hurry, and that he had no intention of committing a crime.

His defense team submitted written statements in which he stated that he had been prescribed cannabis to treat pain.

Before her sentence was announced, the State Department stated that Griner had been "wrongly detained."

Griner told the court she made "an honest mistake" before being sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia.

Aug. 4, 202202:39

Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the unusual step of publicly disclosing in July that the United States had made a "substantial proposal" for Griner to return home with Paul Whelan, an American serving a 16-year sentence in Russia. for espionage.

Although the diplomat did not give details, The Associated Press and other media reported that the pact consists of a prisoner swap, through which the United States would free Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who is serving 25 years in prison and who in his day earned the nickname

Merchant of Death

.

A senior Russian official confirmed on Sunday that talks have been taking place over such an exchange.

[The White House claims that Russia is preparing to annex more territory from Ukraine]

"This rather sensitive matter of the exchange of sentenced Russian and American citizens is being discussed through the channels defined by our presidents," Alexander Darchiev, head of the North American Department at the Foreign Ministry, told the Tass state news agency. .

"Indeed, these people are being talked about. The Russian side has been seeking Viktor Bout's release for a long time. Details should be left to professionals, based on the 'do no harm' principle," he added.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2022-08-15

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