Russian prosecutors seek nine-and-a-half-year sentence for US basketball star

(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

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 Griner’s arrest at a Moscow airport and subsequent detention, a case that has reached the highest levels of US-Russia diplomacy.