By JIM HEINTZ
MOSCOW (AP) — Lawyers for American basketball star Brittney Griner filed an attraction Monday of her nine-year Russian jail sentence for drug possession, Russian information businesses reported, in a case denounced by the United States that would result in a high-profile prisoner swap.
Griner, an eight-time all-star middle with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and two-time Olympic gold medalist, was convicted Aug. 4 after police mentioned they discovered vape canisters containing hashish oil in her baggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
Griner admitted that she had the canisters in her baggage, however mentioned she had inadvertently packed them in haste and that she had no felony intent. Her protection staff introduced written statements that she had been prescribed hashish to deal with ache.
Her 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, acknowledged as one of many biggest gamers in WNBA historical past, was returning to Russia, the place she performs throughout the U.S. league’s offseason.
Lawyer Maria Blagovolina was quoted by Russian information businesses on Monday as saying the attraction was filed, as was anticipated, however the grounds for it weren’t instantly clear.
The nine-year sentence was near the utmost of 10 years, and Blagovolina and co-counsel Alexander Boykov mentioned after the conviction that the punishment was extreme. They mentioned that in comparable instances 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 the rising stress on the Biden administration to do extra to deliver Griner dwelling, 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 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 provided to free 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.”
On Sunday, a senior Russian diplomat mentioned talks about an alternate have been carried out.
“This quite sensitive issue of the swap of convicted Russian and U.S. citizens is being discussed through the channels defined by our presidents,” Alexander Darchiev, head of the Foreign Ministry’s North America division, informed state information company Tass. “These individuals are, indeed, being discussed. The Russian side has long been seeking the release of Viktor Bout. The details should be left to professionals.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”