The WNBA basketball star’s lawyers from the United States, Brittney Griner asked a Russian appeals court on Tuesday to acquit her or at least reduce her nine-year sentence, which they said did not fit the crime of possession and smuggling of cannabis oil.
“No judge, with an open heart, will honestly say that Griner’s nine-year sentence is in accordance with Russian criminal law,” his lawyer Alexander Boykov told the three-judge panel.
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was arrested on February 17 at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is banned in Russia. She was sentenced on 4 August.
At her original trial, she pleaded guilty to the charges but said she had made an “honest mistake” and did not intend to break the law.
The appeal hearing was held at a courthouse in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow, with Griner participating by videoconference from a detention center in the town of Novoye Grishino, on the outskirts of the capital, near the airport where she was arrested.
Wearing a black and red shirt over a black hooded top, the 32-year-old alternately sat or stood in her cell, sometimes with her head bowed, sometimes leaning against the white bars.
The state attorney told the court that Griner’s sentence was “fair.”
Maria Blagovolina, also representing Griner, said: “There was no intent in her actions… The substance was used for medical purposes.”
Boykov listed a number of what he said were procedural flaws in Griner’s conviction, but urged that “if the court wants to punish her, [deveria] give her a new ‘fair’ verdict and mitigate the punishment”.
“The severity and cruelty of the sentence meted out to Griner shocks people all over the world,” he said.
Griner’s lawyers previously said they expect a decision on the appeal to be issued later on Tuesday, shortly after the hearing.
US President Joe Biden called the original verdict “unacceptable”.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday that Washington was working to free Griner and former US Marine Paul Whelan, who is serving 16 years in prison after being convicted of espionage, and that there were “active discussions, including in recent days”.
“We did not review the various lawsuits and court actions because, as we have made clear, we believe these lawsuits were largely chaotic,” Price told the press.
Elizabeth Rood, the US charge d’affaires in Moscow, attended Tuesday’s appeal hearing.
(Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
