MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian courtroom on Tuesday rejected an attraction by U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner of her nine-year jail sentence for drug possession, a step that would transfer her nearer to a potential high-stakes prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.
The 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, 31, was not on the Moscow Regional Court listening to however appeared by way of video hyperlink from a penal colony outdoors Moscow the place she is held.
At her trial, Griner admitted to having the canisters in her baggage however testified she packed them inadvertently in her haste to make her flight and had no felony intent. Her protection workforce introduced written statements saying she had been prescribed hashish to deal with continual 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 instances defendants have acquired a mean sentence of about 5 years, with a couple of third of them granted parole.
While upholding the sentence, the courtroom stated Griner’s jail time will likely be recalculated to mirror what she has already served in pre-trial detention. One day in pre-trial detention will likely be counted as 1 1/2 days in jail, so she nonetheless should serve about eight years in jail.
Griner’s arrest in February 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 play for a Russian workforce in the course of the WNBA’s offseason.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan denounced Tuesday’s listening to as “another sham judicial proceeding,” saying in an announcement that U.S. President Joe Biden “is willing to go to extraordinary lengths and make tough decisions to bring Americans home.”
Before her conviction, the U.S. State Department declared Griner to be “wrongfully detained” — a cost that Russia has sharply rejected.
Reflecting rising strain on the Biden administration to do extra to convey Griner house, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the weird 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 Associated Press and different information organizations have reported that Washington has provided 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 acquired a productive response from Russia to the supply.
Russian diplomats have refused to touch upon the U.S. proposal and urged Washington to debate the matter in confidential talks, avoiding public statements. But some Russian officers have stated a deal is extra possible as soon as appeals have been exhausted.
In September, Biden met with Cherelle Griner, the participant’s spouse, in addition to her 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 pressured 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 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, advised Russian newspaper Izvestia final month that his consumer hoped to be a part of a potential swap.
The newspaper speculated that one other potential candidate was Roman Seleznev, the son of a Russian lawmaker. He was sentenced in 2017 to 27 years in jail on expenses from a hacking and bank card fraud scheme.
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Follow AP’s protection of the Griner case: https://apnews.com/hub/brittney-griner
Source: www.bostonherald.com”
