A court sentences Brittney Griner, who was arrested in February with cannabis oil in her luggage, to nine years in prison
A Russian court on Thursday found American basketball player Brittney Griner guilty of drug trafficking. She has been sentenced to nine years in prison. Griner was arrested in February in Moscow and has been in pretrial detention ever since.
At the hearing before the Khimki court, the prosecutor had requested nine years and six months in prison for the athlete, who would serve her sentence in a general regime correctional colony, according to the Russian Press. The maximum sentence was ten years. In addition, Griner will have to face a fine of one million rubles, about 16,000 euros.
The 31-year-old player, winner of two Olympic golds, was arrested in February at the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, after the police found two cartridges with cannabis oil in her luggage. Her lawyer, Alexander Boykov, said that the athlete, who plays in the Russian first division basketball, admitted that they were hers, but that she brought them to Russia by mistake.
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, stated a few days ago that the Biden Administration will discuss a possible prisoner swap with the Kremlin, including Griner herself. The other American involved would be Paul Whelan, a former marine and former head of security for a private company who was arrested in 2018 and sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison for espionage, a charge he denies.
Both “were wrongly detained and should be allowed to return home,” according to Blinken, who declined to reveal what his country offers in return. According to CNN, Washington would be willing to hand over to Moscow the Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year sentence in the US.
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