Washington called for the sportswoman’s release, calling the Russian legal proceedings “bogus”.
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Request denied. Russian justice rejected, Tuesday, October 25, the appeal of American basketball player Brittney Griner, sentenced in August in Russia to nine years in prison for cannabis trafficking. The athlete had asked the court in August to reduce her sentence “traumatic”.
The body decided to “leave unchanged” the verdict handed down last August against the American basketball star, judge Elena Vorontsova said. She clarified that justice would take into account the months already spent in prison by Brittney Griner, imprisoned since March, and count each day of this detention as a day and a half.
Washington called for the sportswoman’s release, calling the Russian legal proceedings a “can”. “President (Joe) Biden has been very clear that Brittney must be released immediately.”said Jake Sullivan, a White House adviser, regretting that she continues to be “wrongly imprisoned, under unacceptable circumstances”.
The player of 31-year-old was arrested in February in Moscow in possession of a vaporizer containing cannabis-based liquid. Brittney Griner admitted to having been in possession of this substance, however claiming to have brought it to Russia inadvertently and to use it legally in the United States as a painkiller. She had come to Russia to play during the American offseason.
The case took on geopolitical significance in the context of the crisis between Moscow and Washington linked to the Russian offensive in Ukraine. The sportswoman is one of several American citizens currently detained in Russia and whose release Washington wants. The United States has repeatedly declared that it has made a “substantial offer” to secure the release of two Americans detained in Russia, Brittney Griner and a former American soldier, Paul Whelan.