A Russian court docket Tuesday rejected U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner’s attraction of her nine-year jail sentence for drug possession, a step that would transfer her nearer to a doable high-stakes prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.
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 Regional Courtroom dominated Tuesday to uphold the jail sentence. The court docket acknowledged, nevertheless, that the time Griner must serve in jail shall be recalculated along with her time in pretrial detention taken into consideration. At some point in pretrial detention shall be counted as 1.5 days in jail, so the basketball participant must serve round eight years in jail.
Griner, 32, took half within the Moscow Regional Courtroom listening to through video from the penal colony exterior Moscow the place she is being held.
At her trial, Griner admitted that she had the canisters in her baggage, however testified that she had inadvertently packed them in haste and that she had no felony intent. Her protection workforce offered written statements that she had been prescribed hashish to deal with ache.
The nine-year sentence was near the utmost of 10 years, and Griner’s attorneys argued after the conviction that the punishment was extreme. They stated in related circumstances defendants have acquired a mean sentence of about 5 years, with a few third of them granted parole.
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. On the time, Griner was returning to Russia, the place she performed through the WNBA’s offseason.
U.S. nationwide safety advisor Jake Sullivan denounced Tuesday’s listening to as “one other sham judicial continuing,” saying in a press release that President Biden “is prepared to go to extraordinary lengths and make robust choices to convey People dwelling.”
Earlier than her conviction, the U.S. State Division declared Griner to be “wrongfully detained” — a cost that Russia has sharply rejected.
Reflecting the rising strain on the Biden administration to do extra to convey Griner dwelling, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken took the bizarre 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 Related Press and different information organizations have reported that Washington has provided to change 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 “service provider of demise.”
The White Home stated it has not but acquired 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, President Biden met with Cherelle Griner, Brittney Griner’s spouse, in addition to the participant’s agent, Lindsay Colas. Biden additionally sat down individually with Elizabeth Whelan, Paul Whelan’s sister.
The White Home stated after the conferences that Biden had burdened to the households his “continued dedication to working by way of all obtainable avenues to convey Brittney and Paul dwelling safely.”
The Biden administration carried out a prisoner swap in April, with Moscow releasing Marine veteran Trevor Reed in change for the U.S. launch of a Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, convicted in a drug-trafficking conspiracy.
Moscow additionally has pushed for the discharge of different Russians in U.S. custody.
One among them is Alexander Vinnik, who was accused of laundering billions of dollars by way of a bootleg cryptocurrency change. Vinnik was arrested in Greece in 2017 and extradited to the U.S. in August.
Vinnik’s French lawyer, Frederic Belot, advised the Russian newspaper Izvestia final month that his consumer hoped to be a part of a doable swap.
The newspaper speculated that one other doable candidate was Roman Seleznev, the son of a Russian lawmaker. He was sentenced in 2017 to 27 years in jail on prices stemming from a hacking and bank card fraud scheme.
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