The WNBA star was arrested at a Moscow airport in February with vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her baggage.
A Russian courtroom has discovered US basketball star Brittney Griner responsible of drug smuggling, and sentenced her to 9 years in jail in a case that has reached the very best ranges of United States-Russia diplomacy.
The courtroom “discovered the defendant responsible” of smuggling and possessing “a big quantity of narcotics”, choose Anna Sotnikova advised a courtroom within the city of Khimki simply outdoors Moscow.
The courtroom additionally fined her a million rubles ($16,300).
US President Joe Biden was fast to sentence the decision, calling it “unacceptable” and renewing his requires the participant’s launch.
“My administration will proceed to work tirelessly and pursue each doable avenue to convey Brittney and Paul Whelan residence safely as quickly as doable,” he stated, referring to a different American imprisoned in Russia on an espionage conviction.
Sotnikova had stated on Thursday that Griner dedicated the crime “intentionally”. She had testified in the course of the trial it was a mistake.
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a Girls’s Nationwide Basketball Affiliation (WNBA) star, was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on February 17 when she entered the nation with vape canisters containing hashish oil.
She referred to as it an “trustworthy mistake” whereas talking within the courtroom Thursday earlier than sentencing.
“I by no means meant to harm anyone, I by no means meant to place in jeopardy the Russian inhabitants, I by no means meant to interrupt Russian legislation,” Griner stated by a translator whereas standing within the metallic cage reserved for defendants in Russian courtrooms.
She apologised to her household, teammates, and her partner.
She had pleaded responsible when her trial started in July, and stated then she didn't convey the canisters into Russia deliberately.
Hashish is prohibited in Russia for each medicinal and leisure functions.
Consideration will now flip to the high-stakes chance of a prisoner swap.
In July, the US Division of State designated Griner as “wrongfully detained”, transferring her case below the supervision of its particular presidential envoy for hostage affairs, successfully the federal government’s chief hostage negotiator.
Then final week, in a unprecedented transfer, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, urging him to settle for a deal below which Griner and Whelan would go free.
The Lavrov-Blinken name marked the highest-level identified contact between Washington and Moscow since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine greater than 5 months in the past. The direct outreach over Griner is at odds with US efforts to isolate the Kremlin.
“I do know everyone retains speaking about political pawn and politics, however I hope that's removed from this courtroom,” Griner stated Thursday earlier than the choose’s ruling.
Griner, 31, had flown to Russia to affix her workforce, UMMC Ekaterinburg, for the playoffs after spending time at residence within the US. She has performed within the Russian Girls’s Basketball Premier League in the course of the WNBA low season.
In her testimony final week, Griner expressed puzzlement as to how the vape cartridges had ended up in her baggage.
“I nonetheless don’t perceive to at the present time how they ended up in my bag,” she advised the courtroom on July 27. “If I needed to guess on how they ended up in my luggage, I used to be in a rush packing.”
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