A Russian court on Tuesday dismissed the appeal of U.S. WNBA star Brittney Griner against a nine-year sentence for possessing and smuggling cannabis oil and vape cartridges into the country.
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Griner and her attorneys fought for an acquittal or sentence reduction, claiming it was extremely disproportionate to the offense committed and is not in line with standard Russian judicial practice.
The presiding judge upheld the verdict “without changes” except for the counting of time served in pre-trial detention as part of the sentence.
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medallist who plays professionally in Russia during the WNBA offseason, was arrested on Feb. 17 at a Moscow airport, a week before Russia sent troops into Ukraine. As her case’s notoriety grew, it has inevitably been viewed in context of the ensuing deterioration of U.S.-Russian relations.
The U.S. chargee d’affaires in Moscow, Elizabeth Rood, who attended the hearing, called the sentence “excessive and disproportionate.”
The state prosecutor said Griner’s Aug. 4 sentence of almost ten years in a penal colony was “fair”, but Alexander Boykov, one of her lawyers, told the court he vehemently disagreed.
“No judge, hand on heart, will honestly say that Griner’s nine-year sentence is in line with Russian criminal law.”
He detailed a list of what he described as procedural flaws in Griner’s conviction and requested a full acquittal. Realizing that may have been out of the question from the court’s perspective, he asked that “if the court wants to punish her, [it should] give her a new, ‘fair’ verdict and mitigate the punishment.”
“The severity and cruelty of the sentence applied to Griner shocks people around the world,” he stated.
Permitted to make a final statement to the judges by live video link from her detention center, Griner spoke on how stressful her eight-month detention and two trials had been.
“I’ve been here almost eight months, and people with more severe crimes have gotten less than what I was given,” the Phoenix Mercury center told the court. “I wanted to also apologize for this mistake. I did not intend to do this, but I understand the charges brought against me. And I hope that is taken into account.”
She has said she used medical cannabis to relieve the pain from a series of sports injuries. However, both recreational and medicinal uses of cannabis are prohibited in Russia.
When asked if she understood the verdict, she simply responded “Yes.”
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