US basketball player Brittney Griner’s (32) appeal against her nine-year prison sentence for drug smuggling in Russia has been rejected. This was announced by the court in Krasnogorsk near Moscow after Griner’s hearing on Tuesday.
The US government around President Joe Biden, which has been campaigning for Griner’s release for months, described the court’s decision as “further sham legal proceedings”Griner will continue “wrongly imprisoned in intolerable circumstances” held.
Griner: Detention is “stressful and traumatic”
Jake Sullivan, US National Security Advisor, has assured President Biden “shown he’s willing to go to extraordinary lengths and make tough decisions to bring Americans home”. In the summer there was talk of a prisoner exchange between Russia and the USA.
Griner asserted in a video link that he was in custody “very, very stressful and traumatic” and asked the court to reduce the sentence. The court refused, but stated that each day of her detention would count as one and a half days towards her sentence.
Griner has been in jail since February
The two-time Olympic champion has been jailed since February. She was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport for carrying vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage. The verdict was made in early August.
Marijuana is banned in Russia, and Griner said she had permission from a US doctor to use medicinal cannabis due to her multiple injuries. After the verdict, Griner’s lawyers said their client was staying “one of the most severely punished defendants in Russia”. Other defendants in similar cases would be given a suspended sentence or a maximum of six years in prison.