Russian courtroom upholds U.S. basketball star Griner’s 9-year drug sentence

Griner and her attorneys had requested for acquittal or at the very least a discount in her sentence, which they mentioned was disproportionate to the offence and at odds with Russian judicial apply.

The presiding decide mentioned the decision was upheld “without changes” apart from the counting of time served in pre-trial detention as a part of the sentence.
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, was arrested on Feb. 17 at a Moscow airport, per week earlier than Russia despatched troops into Ukraine, and her case has inevitably been considered within the context of the following disaster in U.S.-Russian relations.

The U.S. chargee d’affaires in Moscow, Elizabeth Rood, who attended the listening to, known as the sentence “excessive and disproportionate”.

The state prosecutor mentioned Griner’s Aug. 4 sentence of 9 years in a penal colony was “fair”, however Alexander Boykov, one among her attorneys, advised the courtroom:

“No judge, hand on heart, will honestly say that Griner’s nine-year sentence is in line with Russian criminal law.”

He listed a collection of what he mentioned have been procedural flaws in Griner’s conviction and requested an acquittal, however requested that “if the court wants to punish her, [it should] give her a new, ‘fair’ verdict and mitigate the punishment”.

“The severity and cruelty of the sentence applied to Griner shocks people around the world,” he mentioned.

Permitted to make a closing assertion to the judges by reside video hyperlink from her detention centre within the city of Novoye Grishino, simply exterior Moscow, Griner mentioned how worrying her eight-month detention and two trials had been.

“I was barely over the significant amount [of cannabis oil] … People with more severe crimes have gotten less than what I was given,” she mentioned.
Griner apologised for what she mentioned was an sincere mistake, as she had at her authentic trial, saying: “I did not intend to do this”, and asking the courtroom to consider the truth that she had pleaded responsible.

She has mentioned she used medical hashish to alleviate the ache from a collection of sports activities accidents. Both leisure and medicinal makes use of are prohibited in Russia.

Wearing a black and pink lumberjack shirt over a black hooded high, the 32-year-old alternately sat or stood in her cell, generally with head lowered, generally leaning in opposition to the white bars.

When requested if she had understood the decision, she merely replied “Yes”.