Russian Court Sentences Brittney Griner to 9 Years in Penal Colony

to nine years in prison, her lawyer Maria Blagovolina on Monday. Griner was arrested for carrying a single vape cartridge containing less than a gram of hash oil.After six months in pretrial detention, the Phoenix Mercury star player was found guilty of drug possession on August 4.

Brittney Griner's legal team has appealed against the American basketball star's guilty verdict and nine-year prison sentence on drug smuggling charges in Russia, the lawyers said on Monday.Griner was arrested for carrying vape cartridges containing with marijuana in a Moscow airport in February amid soaring tension between Washington and Moscow, and just before Russian leader Vladimir Putin launched his ongoing assault on Ukraine.The athlete was on her way to Yekaterinburg, in western Russia, to play for a local team during the WNBA's off-season.Griner pleaded guilty to the charge but sought leniency, saying that she packed the cartridges inadvertently and marijuana was prescribed to her by a doctor in the U.S. to help her cope with pain from injuries sustained during her basketball career. In early August, a court in the Moscow region found her guilty.Before her trial began in July, the State Department designated her as being «wrongfully detained,» moving her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs — effectively the U.S.

Brittney Griner have filed an appeal against her prison sentence, Russian news agencies reported on Monday. Griner, an American basketball star for the Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was sentenced to nine years in Russian prison after being found guilty for drug possession. Griner was detained by Russian police at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on February 17 with vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage.

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pleaded guilty to the charge against her, admitting to possessing the cartridges but saying they were left in her luggage as part of an oversight while she was packing in a hurry. The U.S. State Department has floated the idea of a prisoner swap, in which the United States would release a convicted arms dealer in exchange for Griner and Paul Whelan, a former U.S.

Basketball player Brittney Griner has been found guilty of smuggling drugs with criminal intent in a Russian court today and sentenced to nine years in prison, CNN reports. The Phoenix Mercury player was detained near Moscow earlier this year after security discovered a small amount of the drug in her luggage.

pleaded guilty to the charge, but insisted she had never intended to break Russian law, and that the vape cartridges were in her luggage due to an oversight while packing in a hurry.The judge also fined Griner 1 million rubles, or about $16,300, as part of her sentence. According to The New York Times, Griner’s lawyers had asked the court to take into account Griner’s personality and the role she has played in the development of Russian basketball playing for EMMC Ekaterinburg in the WNBA off-season, asking for a “milder” penalty.Addressing the court, Griner talked about her upbringing in Houston and the values her parents instilled in her, including to “take ownership for your responsibilities.”“That’s why I pleaded guilty to my charges; I understand everything that has been said against me in the charges against me, but I had no intent to break Russian law,” she said.

Brittney Griner to nine years in a penal colony after she pled guilty to drug charges. Griner was arrested in February after officials found cannabis oil in her luggage.

Justin Bieber offered up his help after U. S. basketball star Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia on Thursday.

Out lesbian US basketball player Brittney Griner was convicted by a Russian court on charges of drug possession and smuggling and sentenced to nine years in prison on Thursday. US President Joe Biden denounced the verdict and sentence as “unacceptable” and called on Russia to release the athlete immediately so that she could be with her “her wife, loved ones, friends, and teammates”. President Biden added that he would work to bring both Griner and Paul Whelan, another American imprisoned in Russia under an espionage charge, home.  Brittney Griner with wife Cherelle.

Brittney Griner has been sentenced to 9 years in prison and fined 1 million rubles (around $16,500) after she was found guilty of drug possession and smuggling by a Russian court.The devastating news halfway across the world was met with shock and disdain, as celebrities and public figures spoke out about the arrest and subsequent sentencing. President Joe Biden, WNBA and NBA commissioners Cathy Engelbert and Adam Silver, as well as a slew of celebrities — from Justin Bieber, Kerry Washington and Mia Farrow — all spoke out in support of the Olympic gold medalist and Baylor great.Jada Pinkett Smith hardly had a minute to celebrate Breonna Taylor's family finally getting long overdue justice before news broke about Griner's sentencing.

WNBA star Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison for drug possession, and celebrities are speaking out. Many famous faces are voicing their outrage over the sentencing on social media. Here are some of those who have commented so far.

WNBA star Brittney Griner has been sentenced to nine years behind bars in a Russian prison on charges of smuggling drugs into the country. Wow.

Hoping for a solution. After Brittney Griner was convicted of drug smuggling in Russia, plenty of WNBA players and other celebrities weighed in to express their support for the athlete.

Preisdent Joe Biden is speaking out.

American basketball star Brittney Griner was sentenced to 9 years in prison and given a fine of 1 million rubles (approximately $16,500) by a Russian court on Thursday, after she was found guilty of drug possession and smuggling. Prosecutors had asked that she receive 9 1/2 years in prison.The trial concluded nearly six months after Griner's arrest at a Moscow airport in a case that has reached the highest levels of U.S.-Russia diplomacy, with Washington proposing a prisoner exchange.

William Earl Brittney Griner, the WNBA player who was tried in Russian court for drug smuggling after bringing cannabis oil into the country, has been sentenced to nine years in jail, the Associated Press reports.President Biden issued a statement about the verdict, writing, “Today, American citizen Brittney Griner received a prison sentence that is one more reminder of what the world already knew: Russia is wrongfully detaining Brittney. It’s unacceptable, and I call on Russia to release her immediately so she can be with her wife, loved ones, friends, and teammates.