MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian courtroom has upheld the nine-year jail sentence handed to American basketball star Brittney Griner for drug possession, rejecting her enchantment.
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.
The Moscow area courtroom dominated Tuesday to uphold the sentence. In the ruling the courtroom said, nevertheless, that the time Griner should serve in jail will probably be recalculated along with her time in pre-trial detention taken under consideration. One day in pre-trial detention will probably be counted as 1.5 days in jail, so the basketball participant should serve round eight years in jail.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows beneath.
MOSCOW (AP) —
A Russian courtroom on Tuesday began listening to American basketball star Brittney Griner’s enchantment 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 stated they discovered vape canisters containing hashish oil in her baggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
Griner took half within the Moscow Regional Court listening to by way of video name from a penal colony outdoors Moscow the place she is imprisoned.
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. At the time, Griner was returning to Russia, the place she performed in the course of the U.S. league’s offseason.
Griner admitted she had the canisters in her baggage however testified she inadvertently packed them in haste and had no prison intent. Her protection workforce offered written statements saying she had been prescribed hashish to deal with ache.
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 stated in comparable circumstances defendants have obtained a median sentence of about 5 years, with a few third of them granted parole.
Before her conviction, the U.S. State Department declared Griner to be “wrongfully detained” — a cost that Russia has sharply rejected.
Reflecting rising stress on the Biden administration to do extra to carry Griner dwelling, 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 dwelling, together with Paul Whelan, an American serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for espionage.
Blinken didn’t elaborate, however The Associated Press and different information organizations have reported that Washington has supplied to alternate Griner and Whelan for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms seller who’s serving a 25-year sentence within the U.S. and as soon as earned the nickname the “merchant of death.”
The White House 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 House stated after the conferences that the president burdened to the households his “continued commitment to working through all available avenues to bring Brittney and Paul home safely.”
The U.S. and Russia carried out a prisoner swap in April. Moscow launched U.S. Marines veteran Trevor Reed in alternate for the U.S. releasing a Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was convicted in a drug trafficking conspiracy.
Moscow additionally has pushed for the discharge of different Russians in U.S. custody.
One of them is Alexander Vinnik, who was accused of laundering billions of {dollars} by way of a bootleg cryptocurrency alternate. Vinnik was arrested in Greece in 2017 and extradited to the U.S. in August.
Vinnik’s French lawyer, Frederic Belot, informed Russian newspaper Izvestia final month that his consumer hoped to be a part of a attainable swap.
The newspaper speculated that one other attainable candidate was Roman Seleznev, the son of a Russian lawmaker. He was sentenced in 2017 to 27 years in jail on costs from a hacking and bank card fraud scheme.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com”