A Russian appeals court upheld an earlier decision to sentence WNBA player Brittney Griner to nine years on drug smuggling and cannabis possession charges Tuesday, intensifying the pressure on the U.S. government to get Griner home through a deal with Russian authorities. Griner, 32, participated in court proceedings visible via a video link showing the facility where she has been held since she was arrested on Feb. 17.
“I’ve been here almost eight months, and people with more severe crimes have been given less than what I was given,” Griner said in the proceedings covered by CNN. She spoke from a detention center dubbed Correctional Colony No. 1, which is north of Moscow in Novoye Grishino.
“I really hope the court will adjust this sentence because it has been very, very stressful and very traumatic to my mental and my psyche,” Griner said before the court's decision. She also noted the stress of being away from her family and “not being able to communicate.”
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Griner's lawyers have not indicated whether they will continue pursuing appeal efforts despite two higher appeals courts that could offer that possibility, The New York Times reported.
“Higher courts in Russia are not known for overturning verdicts, especially in a case involving foreign policy and the interests of the Kremlin,” New York Times writers Ivan Nechepurenko and Neil MacFarquhar penned. “Since her arrest at a Moscow airport days before Russia invaded Ukraine, Ms. Griner’s fate has become entangled in the increasingly acrimonious relations between Moscow and Washington over the war.”
Aleksandr Boikov, an attorney on Griner's legal team, told the Times the Khimki Court that sentenced Griner outside of Moscow overlooked “serious procedural violations during detention, extraction of physical evidence, arrest and investigation” to impose an “unprecedentedly harsh” sentence. Boikov said the verdict did “not correspond to the current legal practice of Russian courts.”
The opinion seemed to be in keeping with a more recent statement from Griner’s legal team that The New York Times obtained: “The verdict contains numerous defects, and we hoped that the court of appeal would take them into consideration.”
Instead, Griner faces a Russian penal colony, which the Times reported are "the descendants of gulags, the notorious Stalin-era labor camps where millions of Russians lost their lives."
Russian attorney and opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny described a penal colony as scheduled strength training and screen time that consists of being forced to watch propaganda.
“You need to imagine something like a Chinese labor camp, where everybody marches in a line and where video cameras are hung everywhere,” he said. “There is constant control and a culture of snitching.”
The United States has offered to exchange Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer held in a penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, for Griner and Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine convicted in Moscow of espionage in a prisoner swap. But a senior official with the administration of President Joe Biden told CNN that the administration has yet to get “a serious counteroffer” from Russia.
“They’re not nonresponsive,” the official said. “I would say that they continue to respond with something that they know not to be feasible or available.”
The Women's National Basketball Players Association issued a statement on Tuesday voicing its continued support. "The courage and integrity Brittney Griner has displayed throughout her wrongful detainment should motivate every American to join our campaign to bring her home to her family without any further delay," the association said in the statement.
It called on the Biden administration and congressional leaders to "do everything possible to get her home," later adding: "No athlete should be used as a political pawn."
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan issued this statement:
“We are aware of the news out of Russia that Brittney Griner will continue to be wrongfully detained under intolerable circumstances after having to undergo another sham judicial proceeding today. President Biden has been very clear that Brittney should be released immediately. In recent weeks, the Biden-Harris Administration has continued to engage with Russia through every available channel and make every effort to bring home Brittney as well as to support and advocate for other Americans detained in Russia, including fellow wrongful detainee Paul Whelan. The President has demonstrated that he is willing to go to extraordinary lengths and make tough decisions to bring Americans home, as his Administration has done successfully from countries around the world. The Administration remains in regular touch with representatives of the families, and we continue to admire their courage in the face of these unimaginable circumstances.”
Journalists and activists continued to share messages of support for Griner on social media.
In one particularly poignant tweet, Canadian writer and journalist Kathleen Newman-Bremang penned: "every so often (too often) there are stories that remind you of how cruel and terrifying it can be to just exist as a Black woman in this world, especially a Black queer woman. brittney griner’s is one of those stories. thinking of her & her wife cherelle today."
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