Arrested in February at Moscow Airport with cannabis vaping liquid, the American female basketball star was sentenced for drugs and drug trafficking.
Le Monde with AFP
The American star of women’s basketball Brittney Griner, detained in Russia, was sentenced on Thursday August 4, to nine years in prison for possession and drug trafficking, the Khimki court, near Moscow, announced. This is almost maximum possible sentence for this crime, set at ten years in prison.
“The court recognized the accused’s defendant” of illegal possession and trafficking of a “significant quantity” of drugs, said judge Anna Sotnikova. The sentence is slightly lower than the requisitions of nine and a half years in prison. The prosecutor had also asked for a fine of one million rubles (around 16,000 euros at the current rate).
The Phoenix Mercury basketball player had come to Russia to play during the American offseason, a common practice for the basketball players of Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), who often earn their lives abroad better than in States -United. She was accused of illegal drug possession after being arrested at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow with cannabis vaping liquid.
She admitted to having been in possession of this substance, claiming to have brought it to Russia by mistake. Above all, it denied any traffic, stressing that this small amount of substance was only for its personal consumption, for analgesic purposes, because it suffers from chronic pain, like many athletes. The prosecutor assured that she had knowingly tried to “hide” customs liquid from cannabis.
prisoner exchange
During the hearing, the basketball player had admitted having made “a good faith error”, adding: “I hope your decision will not end my life.” Aged 31 years old, Griner is considered as One of the best basketball players in the world. Since the start of the trial, she appeared concentrated, answering the questions of the court with calm and precision.
Thursday, she was once again brought to the hearing hall, dressed in a gray t-shirt, before being placed in the bars reserved for defendants. Before the start of the hearing, she brandished a photo of her surrounded by her basketball teammates in Russia in front of the journalists.
Since his arrest in February, a few days before the Russian offensive in Ukraine, the double Olympic champion is plunged into the geopolitical crisis between Russia in the United States. His trial has accelerated in recent days, when the two countries are negotiating an exchange of prisoners of which the player could be part, Washington claiming to have recently made a “important” offer in Moscow.
Friday, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, had their first discussions since the start of the Moscow offensive in Ukraine. Mr. Blinken says he has pressed his counterpart to accept Washington’s offer in Moscow to obtain the release of M Me Griner and another American detained in Russia, Paul Whelan, who purges a sentence of sixteen years of prison for espionage.
The conviction of the basketball player opens the way to a possible exchange of prisoners. According to several American media, it is a question of exchanging a famous Russian weapons detected in the United States, Viktor Bout, against M Me Griner and Mr. Whelan. Mr. Bout, arrested in Thailand in 2008 and who serves a sentence of twenty-five years in prison in the United States, is nicknamed the “death merchant”. His extraordinary journey was one of the inspirations of the film Lord of War, in which Nicolas Cage plays a most cynical arms dealer.