Brittney Griner is seen on the underside a part of a TV display as she waits to seem in a video hyperlink offered by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service a courtroom previous to a listening to on the Moscow Regional Courtroom in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday.
AP
A Russian court docket on Tuesday began listening to American basketball star Brittney Griner’s enchantment towards 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 stated they discovered vape canisters containing hashish oil in her baggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
Griner is participating within the session held on the Moscow Regional Courtroom through video name from a penal colony outdoors Moscow the place she is being held.
Griner’s 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 was returning to Russia, the place she performed throughout the U.S. league’s offseason.
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 felony intent. Her protection crew introduced written statements that she had been prescribed hashish to deal with ache.
The nine-year sentence was near the utmost of 10 years, and Griner’s attorneys argued after the conviction that the punishment was extreme. They stated in related instances defendants have obtained a mean sentence of about 5 years, with a couple of third of them granted parole.
Earlier than her conviction, the U.S. 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 convey Griner residence, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the bizarre step of unveiling publicly in July that Washington had made a “substantial proposal” to get Griner residence, 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 provided to alternate Griner and Whelan for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms supplier who's serving a 25-year sentence within the U.S. and as soon as earned the nickname the “service provider of loss of life.”
The White Home stated it has not but obtained a productive response from Russia to the provide.
Russian diplomats have refused to touch upon the U.S. proposal and urged Washington to debate the matter in confidential talks, avoiding public statements.
In September, U.S. President Joe Biden met 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 stated after the conferences that the president confused to the households his “continued dedication to working by all out there avenues to convey Brittney and Paul residence safely.”
The Biden administration carried out a prisoner swap in April, with Moscow releasing Marine veteran Trevor Reed in alternate for the U.S. releasing a Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, convicted in a drug trafficking conspiracy.
Moscow additionally has protested the arrest of one other Russian at the moment in U.S. custody, Alexander Vinnik, who was accused of laundering billions of dollars through a bootleg cryptocurrency alternate. Vinnik had been in custody in Greece after being arrested there in 2017 at U.S. request earlier than being extradited to the U.S. in August. It wasn’t clear if Russia would possibly demand Vinnik’s launch as a part of a possible swap.
Post a Comment