Brittney Griner, the American basketball star jailed in Russia, does not expect “any miracles to happen,” her lawyers said in a statement Monday, a day before A court near Moscow will hear her nine-year prison sentence.
The fate of Ms. Griner – who was arrested on drug charges in a Moscow airport days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – was intertwined in a tug-of-war between Moscow and Washington.
A court near Moscow on Tuesday will hear an appeal against Griner’s nine-year prison sentence for attempting to smuggle a small amount of hashish oil into Russia. Maria Blagovolina and Aleksandr Boikov, Ms. Griner’s attorney, said its ruling is expected the same day.
The court can uphold that sentence, reduce the prison term, or rescind the sentence and send it back to a lower court, they said. If the appeals court fails to uphold Ms. Griner’s decision, the sentence will go into effect and she will be sent to a penal camp.
Ms Griner – who was “very nervous” ahead of the hearing, according to her lawyers – will not appear in court and will participate in the proceedings via a video link from the detention center in which she was detained. in custody since his arrest in February. .
“Brittney was a very strong person and had the guts of a champion,” the lawyers said in their statement. “She of course has her ups and downs as she is under the severe stress of being away from her loved ones for more than eight months.”
Ms. Griner was arrested on February 17 at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, where she had just arrived in the United States. She was on her way to Yekaterinburg, a Russian city near the Ural Mountains, where she played for a women’s basketball team. Customs officials in Moscow said they found two vape boxes containing hash oil in her luggage and arrested her.
Ms Griner admitted her guilt in court but insisted she had no intention of breaking the law, saying the amount of chopped oil that appeared in her luggage was due to negligence. She told the court she made “an honest mistake.”
Since she was sentenced in August, her lawyers have argued that the nine-year prison sentence – close to the 10-year maximum for such a crime – is too harsh for an offense. first time and politically motivated.
US officials have accused Russia of using Griner and other Americans held by Russia as bargaining chips. In July, the Biden administration proposed a prisoner swap Griner, but Russian officials said it was too early to discuss a settlement while her case was underway.
President Biden said that no action had been taken with the President of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, on the Griner case. He also told CNN that he would only speak with Putin at the Group of 20 meeting to be held in Bali, Indonesia, next month if it was to discuss her situation.
Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico and ambassador to the United Nations, who negotiated informally with Russian officials as a private citizen, speak in October that he was “cautiously optimistic” that Ms Griner could be exchanged with Paul Whelan, who is serving a sentence in a Russian prison, before the end of the year.
Ms. Griner’s lawyers say she is allowed to take a walk outside once a day in a small courtyard at her prison. She spent the rest of her time in a small cell with two roommates, sitting and sleeping on a specially long bed to accommodate her 6-foot-9-tall frame.
