Brittney Griner's attraction in opposition to her nine-year jail sentence for drug possession will happen Oct. 25.
AFP by way of Getty Pictures
A Russian court docket on Monday set Oct. 25 because the date for American basketball star Brittney Griner’s attraction in opposition to her nine-year jail sentence for drug possession.
Griner, an eight-time all-star middle with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was convicted Aug. 4 after police mentioned they discovered vape canisters containing hashish oil in her baggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
The Moscow area court docket mentioned it'll hear her attraction.
Griner admitted that she had the canisters in her baggage, however testified that she had inadvertently packed them in haste and that she had no prison intent. Her protection group introduced written statements that she had been prescribed hashish to deal with ache.
Her February arrest got here at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington, simply days earlier than Russia despatched troops into Ukraine. On the time, Griner, acknowledged as one of many biggest gamers in WNBA historical past, was returning to Russia, the place she performed through the US league’s offseason.
The nine-year sentence was near the utmost of 10 years, and Griner’s legal professionals argued after the conviction that the punishment was extreme. They mentioned in related circumstances defendants have obtained a median sentence of about 5 years, with a few third of them granted parole.
Earlier than her conviction, the US State Division declared Griner to be “wrongfully detained” — a cost that Russia has sharply rejected.
Reflecting the rising strain on the Biden administration to do extra to deliver Griner house, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the bizarre step of showing publicly in July that Washington had made a “substantial proposal” to get Griner house, together with Paul Whelan, an American serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for espionage.
Blinken didn’t elaborate, however The Related Press and different information organizations have reported that Washington has supplied to alternate Griner and Whelan for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms supplier who's serving a 25-year sentence within the US and as soon as earned the nickname the “service provider of dying.”
The White Home mentioned it has not but obtained a productive response from Russia to the provide.
Russian diplomats have refused to touch upon the US proposal and urged Washington to debate the matter in confidential talks, avoiding public statements.
President Joe Biden met final month with Cherelle Griner, the spouse of Brittney Griner, in addition to the participant’s agent, Lindsay Colas. Biden additionally sat down individually with Elizabeth Whelan, Paul Whelan’s sister.
The White Home mentioned after the conferences that the president careworn to the households his “continued dedication to working by way of all accessible avenues to deliver Brittney and Paul house safely.”
The Biden administration carried out a prisoner swap in April, with Moscow releasing Marine veteran Trevor Reed in alternate for the US releasing a Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, convicted in a drug trafficking conspiracy.
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