WNBA star Brittney Griner sentenced to 9 years in Russian jail for drug-smuggling

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Anna Chernova, Zahra Ullah, Masha Angelova and Eric Levenson, CNN


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(CNN) - [Breaking news update, 11:30 a.m. ET]

American WNBA star Brittney Griner has been sentenced by a Russian court to 9 years of jail time, Judge Anna Sotnikova of the Khimki city court said Thursday.

[Previous update, 11:11 a.m. ET]

American WNBA star Brittney Griner was convicted in a Russian court Thursday of smuggling drugs with criminal intent, amid concerns she is being used as a political pawn in Russia's war against Ukraine.

Griner faces up to 10 years in jail for the charge, and prosecutors asked for 9.5 years in closing arguments.

Prior to the verdict, Griner apologized to the court and asked for leniency in an emotional speech.

"I never meant to hurt anybody, I never meant to put in jeopardy the Russian population, I never meant to break any laws here," Griner said in the Khimki city courthouse. "I made an honest mistake and I hope that in your ruling that it doesn't end my life here. I know everybody keeps talking about political pawn and politics, but I hope that that is far from this courtroom.

"I want to say again that I had no intent on breaking any Russian laws. I had no intent. I did not conspire or plan to commit this crime," she added.

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 US Olympic basketball gold medalist pleaded guilty to drug charges last month in what her lawyers say was an attempt to take responsibility and receive a lenient sentence.

The US State Department maintains Griner is wrongfully detained. Her supporters have called for her release and asked the US to take further steps to try to free her from the country, perhaps as part of a proposed prisoner swap.

In closing arguments Thursday, defense lawyer Maria Blagovolina, a partner at Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin and Partners law firm, argued that Griner never used marijuana in Russia and that she never had the intention of doing so. She had no need to bring the vape 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, rare and only with a doctor's prescription, she added. She couldn't have known how strict the laws were in Russia, Blagovolina said.

Griner arrived at court in handcuffs Thursday and was escorted by Russian officers into the defendant's cage. Once uncuffed, she spoke with her legal team and then held up a photo of the UMMC Ekaterinburg basketball team, the Russian squad she played for during the WNBA offseason.

Another of Griner's attorneys, Alexander Boykov, argued Griner had no opportunity to properly examine the court documents. He said that the Russian constitution guarantees everyone the right to use their native language 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 that you are guilty."

Charge d'Affaires of the US Embassy in Russia, Elizabeth Rood, arrived at the court Thursday ahead of the hearing. She has appeared in court throughout the trial and on Tuesday said the US would "continue to support Miss Griner through every step of this process and as long as it takes to bring her home to the United States safely."

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I dont care for her, but wow....less then a gram and 9 years

[Pony]

:rofl:

[lost in melb.]

I'm no expert, but aside from her national anthem complaints she seems fairly harmless. I hope they find a way to get her out.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Brittney Griner's nine-year prison sentence in Russia upheld

A Russian court rejected Brittney Griner’s appeal of her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession on Tuesday.

The court ruled to uphold the sentence handed down to the WNBA superstar. However, in the ruling, the court stated that the time Griner will have to serve in prison will be recalculated with her time in pre-trial detention taken into account.

One day in pre-trial detention will be counted as 1.5 days in prison, which means Griner will serve around eight years in prison unless the U.S. and Russia come to an agreement on a potential prisoner swap in the future.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan released a statement after the sentence was upheld.

"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," the statement read.

"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."

Griner was arrested at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow on Feb. 17 after Russian authorities said she had vape cartridges with cannabis oil inside her luggage.

On Aug. 4, Griner was given a nine-year sentence after pleading guilty, arguing that she had been prescribed cannabis for her pain and inadvertently packed it.

Griner’s lawyers Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov said Monday the WNBA star was "not expecting any miracles."

"She is very nervous waiting for the appeal hearing. Brittney does not expect any miracles to happen but hopes that the appeal court will hear the arguments of the defense and reduce the term," they said in a statement Monday, via Reuters.

The White House has mentioned the potential of a prisoner swap. National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said in September that Russia has not responded to the "substantial proposal" the U.S. offered back in July, a deal that includes former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan.

"They have not responded to our offer. We have made a serious offer to get Brittney Griner and Paul Whalen back home," Kirby said at the time. "The Russians have not responded to that offer. But that doesn't mean that we're not still in negotiations."

"We want them to accept it, frankly, these two individuals ought to be home anyway, period. But we understand that that's probably going to have to be the result of the negotiating process, one that we're willing to participate in honestly and fully, and we've been doing that. And we await them to take the offer that's on the table."

Oct. 17 marked eight months in Russian detention for Griner. The following day was her 32nd birthday.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

:violin:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I would have strong opinions about this is she didn't hate this country, now I feel like its karma

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Exactly. You can't spend all your free time hating the country you live in, and then when you need help, beg that same country to bail your dumbass out.

[deebakes]

so long

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Andrea Vacchiano | Fox News


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WNBA star Brittney Griner has been moved to a Russian forced labor camp, nearly nine months after the basketball player was arrested in Russia for allegedly possessing cannabis oil.

The development is the latest update after Griner's appeal of her 9-year sentence was denied by a Russian court last month. The White House released a statement early Wednesday morning condemning the move.

"Every minute that Brittney Griner must endure wrongful detention in Russia is a minute too long," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in the statement.

"As the Administration continues to work tirelessly to secure her release, the President has directed the Administration to prevail on her Russian captors to improve her treatment and the conditions she may be forced to endure in a penal colony," the statement continued.

"The U.S. Government is unwavering in its commitment to its work on behalf of Brittney and other Americans detained in Russia – including fellow wrongful detainee Paul Whelan," Jean-Pierre concluded.

Griner will face harsh conditions in the forced labor camp, and it will be difficult for her family to contact her or even know her exact location. According to her agent Lindsay Colas, Griner's team is in close contact with the U.S. government and the Richardson Center, an organization that works to release American detainees.

"Our primary concern continues to be BG’s [Brittney Griner's] health and well-being," Lindsay Colas said on Wednesday.

"As we work through this very difficult phase of not knowing exactly where BG is or how she is doing, we ask for the public’s support in continuing to write letters and express their love and care for her," Griner's agent added.

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Griner was visiting Russia to compete in the WBNA offseason in February when Russian authorities found cannabis oil in her luggage. She was promptly arrested for possessing the vape cartridges and was later sentenced to nine years in prison.

On Griner's 32nd birthday last month, her representatives released a statement thanking her supporters.

"Thank you everyone for fighting so hard to get me home. All the support and love are definitely helping me," Griner said from prison, according to the statement.

The U.S. government has engaged in prisoner swap talks with Russia, but there appears to be no significant progress. "Putin’s Playbook" author Rebekah Koffler told Fox News that tense relations over the Russo-Ukrainian War have impacted the negotiations.

"This is another case that demonstrates that Americans are not safe in Russia, especially Americans of Russian descent and especially now when the relations between Moscow and Washington are at the lowest point in history, including the Cold War," the intelligence expert said last month.

[lost in melb.]

I don't like her, but this is horrible.

[deebakes]

she probably will get the most work done :shrug:

[lost in melb.]

It'll be interesting to know what hard labour is for women in Rusco

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Joshua Rhett Miller - New York Post


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Brittney Griner will endure merciless conditions inside a Russian penal colony — where rancid food, extreme isolation and tyrannical wardens await the WNBA star, former Russian prison inmates, their relatives and penitentiary experts told The Post.

Former US Marine Trevor Rowdy Reed, who spent nearly 1,000 days detained in Russia, was freed in April in exchange for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring to smuggle more than $100 million of cocaine into New York.

Reed was accused of assaulting two Moscow police officers in August 2019 and spent 11 months in a pretrial detention center in Moscow until a Russian court meted out a nine-year sentence in 2020. He was later shipped 350 miles away to a penal colony in the remote Russian republic of Mordovia, where he survived nine agonizing months until he was swapped this year.

“You gotta understand, the labor camps in Mordovia, these are pre-Stalin-era prisons, these were literally referred to as gulags,” Trevor’s father, Joey Reed, told The Post. “And even though there’s a federal authority for prisons, each warden has wide leeway to do whatever they want until it makes someone angry or leads to bad press.”

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Reed, 62, said his son often described a dour, medieval atmosphere inside the penal colony where Trevor, now 31, lived in crude barracks built of brick and sheet metal. He routinely curled up near hot water pipes or piled on extra clothes during frigid nights in the desolate Mordovian plains, where January temps average in the low teens. When guards threatened to forcibly disrobe his son, Trevor threatened them back, his father said.

“They said they would take them off him and he said, ‘I will take you out trying,’” said Reed, of Granbury, Texas. “But the guards never beat or abused him because they knew he was on the trading block.”


“To a certain extent, you’re starved just by the food that they give you. We didn’t show any public photos of my son for about a month and a half because he looked like a concentration camp victim.”
- Joey Reed, the father of Trevor Reed, who served nine months in a Russian penal colony

The defiant Marine vet wasn’t beaten by jailers for those bold stands, but he did lose about 50 pounds from his unimposing frame due to the “horrible” food, his father said.

The sparse grub consisted primarily of potato soup or some kind of fish, which was typically filled with “crunchy bones” — so foul that even the barracks’ stray cats didn’t eat it, Reed said.

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“That’s how bad it is,” he said. “There was no real health value to the food.”

Trevor Reed, who refused to work inside the penal colony, was tossed into solitary confinement for long stretches up to 28 days, his father said.

“They were trying to break my son,” Reed said. “The main reason he resisted was because he was angry.”

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The desperate veteran went on two hunger strikes to protest being barred from contacting his relatives 6,100 miles away and not receiving proper medical care, his father said.

“He would only drink water, but could only last about four or five days each time because he was already so malnourished,” Reed said. “He figured if he died of starvation, it would be an international incident.”

Now Trevor, who declined to be interviewed, has been back in the US for about eight months, recuperating from his nightmarish stint in Russia. Reed said his son is “doing well.”

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“He’s going to return to college,” Joey said. “He’s got a lot of options on the table.” And despite the ordeal, “Trevor speaks fluent Russian now,” his father added, which he first learned from a Russian woman he dated before being arrested — and perfected behind those prison walls.

Other inmates in Russian prisons or penal colonies, meanwhile, have not been as fortunate. Many, for instance, are subjected to systemic torture, which can sometimes culminate in death or suicide. The facilities are rife with human rights violations that are often “life-threatening,” according to a State Department report.

“Overcrowding, abuse by guards and inmates, limited access to health care, food shortages, and inadequate sanitation were common in prisons, penal colonies, and other detention facilities,” the 2021 assessment found.

Even more dire, some penal colony inmates are limited to just six phone calls per year, according to Daniel Balson, Amnesty International USA’s advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia.

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“Within Europe, the Russian prison system has been subjected to the highest number of complaints to human rights monitors,” Balson told The Post. “It really stands apart among cruel, inhumane and degrading practices.”

Inmates like Griner, who will serve a nine-year sentence for drug smuggling and possession following her failed appeal, are habitually sent to extremely secluded regions via van or train on journeys lasting as long as weeks. The clueless captives are generally denied access to basic necessities like food, water or bedding during the terrifying trips, Balson said.

“They don’t know where they are and they don’t know where they’re going — and often aren’t told until their arrival,” Balson said. “Prisoners are being functionally disappeared for days or weeks in the prison system.”

Without White House intervention or a reduced sentence, Griner, 32, will finish her penal colony stretch in summer 2031 — a few months shy of her 41st birthday. But the psychological torment of the two-time Olympian’s draconian detention may continue years or even decades later, one former American prisoner said.

“It took me a long time to adjust to normal society,” Marvin Makinen, 83, of Chicago, told The Post. “It still affects me.”

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Makinen, then 21, was arrested in the Soviet Union on espionage charges in July 1961. He was later sentenced to eight years by a closed military tribunal. He spent two years in maximum-security Vladimir Prison — Russia’s largest, which was established by Empress Catherine II in 1783 — which included spans in solitary confinement, before being transferred to a labor camp in what’s now Mordovia.

“It becomes very depressing, there’s a lot of mental anguish,” Makinen said. “It’s important for your mental health to have some kind of activity to keep your mind active, otherwise you’re just sitting around stewing.”

Makinen spent four months at the labor camp, where he worked as a mason. During his 28 months in captivity, he lost nearly 55 pounds from his slim build. He was ultimately freed in 1963 along with Polish American Jesuit priest Walter Ciszek in exchange for two Soviet spies.

Makinen said US Embassy officials should push to visit Griner as frequently as possible so jailers won’t allow her condition to deteriorate.

“And I hope that they allow her communication, written communication with her family to keep up her mental health,” said Makinen, now a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Chicago. “I was limited to one letter a month.”

[deebakes]

she's in so much trouble

[lost in melb.]

I'm sure someone will find a way to pass dosh onto the prison warden. So that at least she doesn't starve.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Eric Tucker And Matthew Lee - Associated Press


WASHINGTON – Russia freed WNBA star Brittney Griner on Thursday in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange, with the U.S. releasing notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, American officials said. The swap, at a time of heightened tensions over Ukraine, achieved a top goal for President Joe Biden, but carried a heavy price — and left behind an American jailed for nearly four years in Russia.

The deal, the second such exchange in eight months with Russia, procured the release of the most prominent American detained abroad. Griner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist whose monthslong imprisonment on drug charges brought unprecedented attention to the population of wrongful detainees.

Biden's authorization to release a Russian felon once nicknamed “the Merchant of Death" underscored the escalating pressure that his administration faced to get Griner home, particularly after the recent resolution of her criminal case and her subsequent transfer to a penal colony.

The swap was confirmed by U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the negotiations who were not authorized to publicly discuss the deal before a White House announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Russian and U.S. officials had conveyed cautious optimism in recent weeks after months of strained negotiations, with Biden saying in November that he was hopeful that Russia would engage in a deal now that the midterm elections were completed. A top Russian official said last week that a deal was possible before year's end.

Even so, the fact that the deal was a one-for-one swap was a surprise given that U.S. officials had for months expressed their their determination to bring home both Griner and Paul Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive jailed in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government has said are baseless.

In releasing Bout, the U.S. freed a a former Soviet Army lieutenant colonel whom the Justice Department once described as one of the world's most prolific arms dealers. Bout, whose exploits inspired a Hollywood movie, was serving a 25-year sentence on charges that he conspired to sell tens of millions of dollars in weapons that U.S officials said were to be used against Americans.

The Biden administration was ultimately willing to exchange Bout if it meant Griner's freedom. The detention of one of the greatest players in WNBA history contributed to a swirl of unprecedented public attention for an individual detainee case — not to mention intense pressure on the White House.

Griner’s arrest in February made her the most high-profile American jailed abroad. Her status as an openly gay Black woman, locked up in a country where authorities have been hostile to the LBGTQ community, infused racial, gender and social dynamics into her legal saga and made each development a matter of international importance.

Her case not only brought unprecedented publicity to the dozens of Americans wrongfully detained by foreign governments, but it also emerged as a major inflection point in U.S.-Russia diplomacy at a time of deteriorating relations prompted by Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

The exchange was carried out despite deteriorating relations between the powers. But the imprisonment of Americans produced a rare diplomatic opening, yielding the highest-level known contact between Washington and Moscow — a phone call between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov — in more than five months.

In an extraordinary move during otherwise secret negotiations, Blinken revealed publicly in July that the U.S. had made a “substantial proposal” to Russia for Griner and Whelan. Though he did not specify the terms, people familiar with it said the U.S. had offered Bout.

Such a public overture drew a chiding rebuke from the Russians, who said they preferred to resolve such cases in private, and carried the risk of weakening the U.S. government's negotiating hand for this and future deals by making the administration appear too desperate. But the announcement was also meant to communicate to the public that Biden was doing what he could and to ensure pressure on the Russians.

Besides the efforts of U.S. officials, the release also followed months of backchannel negotiations involving Bill Richardson, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a frequent emissary in hostage talks, and his top deputy Mickey Bergman. The men had made multiple trips abroad in the last year to discuss swap scenarios with Russian contacts.

Griner was arrested at the Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport in February when customs officials said they found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage. She pleaded guilty in July, though still faced trial because admitting guilt in Russia's judicial system does not automatically end a case.

She acknowledged in court that she possessed the canisters, but said she had no criminal intent and said their presence in her luggage was due to hasty packing.

Before being sentenced on Aug. 4 and receiving a punishment her lawyers said was out of line for the offense, an emotional Griner apologized "for my mistake that I made and the embarrassment that I brought on them.” She added: “I hope in your ruling it does not end my life.”

Her supporters had largely stayed quiet for weeks after her arrest, but that approach changed in May once the State Department designated her as unlawfully detained. A separate trade, Marine veteran Trevor Reed for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted in the U.S. in a cocaine trafficking conspiracy, spurred hope that additional such exchanges could be in the works.

Whelan has been held in Russia since December 2018. The U.S. government also classified him as wrongfully detained. He was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison.

Whelan was not included in the Reed prisoner swap, escalating pressure on the Biden administration to ensure that any deal that brought home Griner also included him.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Russian arms dealer for a drug addict WNBA player, sounds like a fair swap.

:facepalm:

[lost in melb.]

Good job, lucky woman..

[lost in melb.]

Russian arms dealer for a drug addict WNBA player, sounds like a fair swap.

:facepalm:

Griner is one of 11 women to receive an Olympic gold medal, an NCAA championship, a FIBA World Cup gold medal and a WNBA championship.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Griner is one of 11 women to receive an Olympic gold medal, an NCAA championship, a FIBA World Cup gold medal and a WNBA championship.

:care:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

What a great trade :roll:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Russian arms dealer for a drug addict WNBA player, sounds like a fair swap.

:facepalm:

Drug addict might be a bit of a stretch

[lost in melb.]

:care:

She's a highly successful American athlete..

[Teh One Who Knocks]

She's a highly successful American athlete..

:rofl:

[DemonGeminiX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fOKDi1Z3sc

[DemonGeminiX]

If Biden had any clout with world leaders at all, he would've gotten both Griner and Whelan back without giving up the arms dealer.

[deebakes]

this is terribly disappointing

[Godfather]

Bad trade. But also hard to imagine why even Russia wants him back. After 13 years in the US, he's probably a liability to them more than anything within his former criminal organizations?

[deebakes]

sets a terrible precedent that minor infraction lockups abroad can be exploited by foreign governments to barter for things from the us

[Godfather]

Ya no argument there, terrorist for C-list athlete isn't a good look.

[Godfather]

https://youtu.be/UTK8torOylM

[lost in melb.]

If Biden had any clout with world leaders at all, he would've gotten both Griner and Whelan back without giving up the arms dealer.

Can't argue there. I think she should be the first on the list to get out, for a number of reasons. But he should have gone for more.

[lost in melb.]

Worth, noting though that two administrations so far have failed to get Whelon out. Maybe Putin just won't let him go.

[DemonGeminiX]

Worth, noting though that two administrations so far have failed to get Whelon out. Maybe Putin just won't let him go.

He's being held on supposed Espionage charges, which probably means that they want something really big that we're just not willing to give up.

[DemonGeminiX]

Hahaha!!! The title of Ben Shapiro's video today is "The Only WNBA Trade Anyone Has Ever Noticed". That shit's funny. :lol:

[lost in melb.]

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