Russian prosecutors seek nine-and-a-half-year sentence for US basketball star
Russian prosecutors have asked a court near Moscow to sentence American basketball star Brittney Griner to nine and a half years in prison as closing arguments in her cannabis possession trial were made.
The trial is nearing its end nearly six months after Grinerâs arrest at a Moscow airport and subsequent detention, a case that has reached the highest levels of US-Russia diplomacy.
A conviction appears almost certain, given that Russian courts rarely acquit defendants and Griner has acknowledged having vape cartridges with cannabis oil in her luggage, but judges have latitude on sentencing.
Lawyers for the Phoenix Mercury player and two-time Olympic gold medallist have pursued strategies to bolster Grinerâs contention that she had no criminal intent and that the canisters ended up in her luggage due to hasty packing.
They have presented character witnesses from the Russian team that she plays for during the WNBA off-season and written evidence from a doctor who said he prescribed her cannabis for pain treatment.
A lawyer on her defence team, Maria Blagovolina, said Griner took the cartridges with her to Russia inadvertently and only used cannabis as medicine and only while in Arizona, where medical marijuana is legal.
A prosecutor, Nikolai Vlasenko, argued that Griner packed the cannabis oil deliberately.
It is not clear when the verdict will be announced. If she does not go free, attention will turn to the high-stakes possibility of a prisoner swap.
Before her trial began in July, the US State Department designated her as âwrongfully detainedâ, moving her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, effectively the governmentâs chief hostage negotiator.
Last week, in an extraordinary move, US secretary of state Antony Blinken spoke to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, urging him to accept a deal under which Griner and Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia on an espionage conviction, would go free.
The Lavrov-Blinken call marked the highest-level known contact between Washington and Moscow since Russia sent troops into Ukraine more than five months ago. The direct outreach over Griner is at odds with US efforts to isolate the Kremlin.
People familiar with the proposal say it envisions trading Griner and Whelan for notorious arms trader Viktor Bout. It underlines the public pressure the White House has faced to get Griner released.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday that Russia has made a âbad faithâ response to the US governmentâs offer, a counter offer that American officials do not regard as serious. She declined to elaborate.
Russian officials have scoffed at US statements about the case, saying they show a disrespect for Russian law. They urged Washington to discuss the issue through âquiet diplomacy without releases of speculative informationâ.
