“I never intended to harm anyone, I never intended to endanger the Russian population, I never intended to break any laws here,” Griner said. “I made an honest mistake and I hope with your decision that my life won’t end here. I know everyone keeps talking about political pawns and politics, but I hope that’s far away from this courtroom. “I want to say again that I had no intention of violating any Russian law. I had no intention. I did not conspire or plan to commit this crime,” he added. After the sentence, Griner told a CNN producer as she left court: “I love my family.” The verdict comes about six months after the 31-year-old was arrested at a Moscow airport and accused by Russian prosecutors of trying to smuggle less than 1 gram of cannabis oil in her luggage. The two-time USA basketball gold medalist pleaded guilty to drug charges last month and said she accidentally collected the drugs while in a rush. Griner’s lawyers, Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, said in a written statement that they would appeal the decision and criticized the court for ignoring their evidence. They have 10 days to appeal. “We are very disappointed with the verdict. As legal professionals, we believe that the court should be fair to everyone regardless of nationality. The court completely ignored all the evidence of the defense and most importantly, the guilty plea,” they told the STATEMENT. “This flies in the face of existing legal practice. Given the amount of substance (not to mention the flaws in the expertise) and the allegation, the verdict is completely unreasonable. We will certainly be appealing.” Speaking outside the court, Boykov said the average prison term for this type of crime is five years, adding that almost a third of those convicted receive parole. Griner is “not doing well today,” said Blagovolina, a partner at the law firm Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin and Partners. The defense team hopes Griner will be able to speak with her family next week. Blagovolina added that Griner will return to the detention center where she is being held.
The sentence comes amid strained US-Russia relations
The harsh sentence comes amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the country’s clash with the US and Europe. The US State Department maintains that Griner is being held unjustly, and US officials have suggested a possible prisoner exchange with Russia in an attempt to bring her home safely. The charge d’affaires of the US Embassy in Russia, Elizabeth Rudd, said the sentence was a “miscarriage of justice” and US President Joe Biden said the lengthy sentence was “unacceptable”. “Today, American citizen Brittney Griner received a prison sentence that is yet another reminder of what the world already knew: Russia is unjustly holding Brittney. It is unacceptable and I call on Russia to immediately release her to be with her beloved wife friends and teammates,” Biden said in a statement. Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken criticized the Russian legal system more broadly, saying the proposal “brings to the fore our significant concerns about Russia’s legal system and the use of illegal detention by the Russian government to advance its own agenda, using individuals as political pawns”. He said the U.S. is working to repatriate Griner and Paul Whelan, a U.S. citizen who has been held by Russia for alleged espionage since 2018. “That is an absolute priority for me and the Department,” Blinken said. It is now up to “the Russian side” whether Griner’s conviction opens new doors for prisoner exchange negotiations, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. “We’re still open to our proposal being looked at seriously and positively, and if on the Russian side that means they feel they have more authority to do that, then so be it,” Kirby told reporters at Thursday’s White House briefing. Kirby reiterated that the US position remains that they want Russia to “get the deal on the table because it’s good, it’s fair, and it will help bring Paul and Britney home.” CNN national security analyst Steve Hall said the harsh sentence was not a surprise and argued that Russia’s legal proceedings are not legal. “These are all performances in Russia. There was never any doubt what was going to happen,” he said. “What Vladimir Putin is trying to do is basically raise Ms. Griner’s negotiating price.” Last week, CNN reported that the Biden administration had proposed a prisoner swap with Russia, offering the release of a convicted Russian arms dealer, Victor Bout, in exchange for Griner and Whelan. Russian officials countered the U.S. offer, multiple sources familiar with the discussions said, but U.S. officials did not accept the request as a legitimate counteroffer. The Kremlin warned on Tuesday that US “bullseye diplomacy” would not help the prisoner exchange negotiations involving Griner. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow believes these talks should be “discrete”. Griner’s WNBA team, the Phoenix Mercury, played the Connecticut Sun on Thursday night. Before the game, the teams observed 42 seconds of silence as the players linked hands. Near the end of the tribute, the audience started chanting “Bring her home! Griner, a six-time WNBA all-star, wears No. 42 for the Mercury. The Mercury lost 77-64. Point guard Skylar Diggins-Smith, wearing a “We Are BG” T-shirt, said after the game that the verdict was devastating. “No one even wanted to play today,” he told reporters. “How do you have to approach the game, approach the court and with a clear mind, and our whole team is crying before the game? Because you try to honor her and you try to go out and still play hard for her.” Earlier, Mercury released a statement calling the verdict “a disappointing milestone in the nightmare 168 days” of her detention. “We are inspired every day by BG’s strength and are steadfastly committed to keeping her public until she is safely back on American soil. We will not allow her to be forgotten. We are BG,” the statement read. Coach Vanessa Nygaard told CNN the guilty verdict and Griner’s sentence were “unacceptable.” “It’s just heartbreaking,” the coach said. “To hear her words and her apologies. Just trying to send her love, prayers and strength.” In a joint statement, WNBA Commissioner Kathy Engelbert and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver criticized the verdict and sentence as “unwarranted and unfortunate, but not unexpected.” “The commitment of the WNBA and the NBA to her safe return has not wavered, and we are hopeful that we are nearing the end of this process to finally bring BG home to the United States,” they said.
The defense asked for leniency in closing arguments
Thursday’s court hearing began shortly after Griner arrived in handcuffs, escorted by Russian officers to the defendant’s cage. Once out of handcuffs, she spoke with her legal team and then held up a photo of the UMMC Ekaterinburg basketball team, the Russian team she played for during the WNBA offseason. In closing arguments, Blagovolina argued that Griner never used marijuana in Russia and that she never intended to do so. He did not need to bring the vapor cartridges to Russia, the lawyer added. All this confirms the complete absence of intent in her actions, Blagovolina argued. Even if Griner ever used medical marijuana, it was only at home back in Arizona, rarely and only by prescription, he added. She couldn’t have known how strict the laws were in Russia, Blagovolina said. Boykov also argued that Griner did not have an opportunity to properly review the court documents. He said that the Russian constitution guarantees everyone the right to use their mother tongue and the free choice of the language of communication. Boykov cited an instance when a language interpreter provided to Griner flipped through a lengthy document offered by an investigator for translation and then told Griner, “Basically, it means you’re guilty.” Throughout the trial, Griner’s lawyers presented arguments undermining the prosecution’s case and contending that her detention was mishandled after she was stopped on February 17 by staff at Sheremetyevo International Airport. Her detention, search and arrest were “inappropriate,” Boykov said last week, noting that more details would be revealed during the final hearing. After being stopped at the airport, Griner was forced to sign documents she did not fully understand, she testified. At first, she said, she used Google Translate on her phone, but was later moved to another room where her phone was taken from her and she was forced to sign more documents. No attorney was present, Griner testified, and her rights were not explained to her. These rights would include access to a lawyer once detained and the right to know what she was suspected of. Under Russian law, she should have been informed of her rights within three hours of her arrest. On Tuesday, at the seventh hearing in her case, a defense expert testified that testing the substance in Griner’s vapor cartridges did not comply with Russian law. Blagovolina also told CNN that her team’s experts found “some flaws” in the machines used to measure the substance. At trial, Griner testified that she had a prescription for medical cannabis and had no intention of bringing the drug into Russia. After her arrest in February, she underwent a drug test and came back clean, her lawyers previously said. “We continue to insist that, indiscriminately, in haste, she packed her suitcase and paid no attention to the fact that substances permitted for use in the United States ended up…
