Griner, an eight-time all-star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and two-time Olympic gold medalist, was sentenced Aug. 4 after police said they found vapor cans containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. Griner admitted to having the containers in her luggage, but said she had accidentally packed them in a hurry and had no criminal intent. Her defense team presented written statements that she had been prescribed cannabis to treat pain. Her arrest in February came at a time of rising tensions between Moscow and Washington, just days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine. At the time, Griner, recognized as one of the greatest players in WNBA history, was returning to Russia, where she plays during the US league’s off-season. Lawyer Maria Blagovolina was quoted by Russian news agencies on Monday as saying that the appeal had been filed, but the grounds for the appeal were not immediately clear. The nine-year sentence was close to the maximum of 10 years, and Blagovolina and co-counsel Alexander Boykov said after the sentencing that the sentence was excessive. They said defendants in similar cases have been sentenced to an average of about five years, with about a third of them receiving parole.
Prisoner exchange talks
Before her sentencing, the US State Department declared Griner wrongly detained — a charge Russia has vehemently denied. Reflecting mounting pressure on the Biden administration to do more to bring Griner home, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken took the unusual step of publicly revealing in July that Washington had made a “substantial offer” to bring Griner home, along with Paul Whelan. Canadian-born American serving 16-year sentence in Russia for espionage. Blinken did not elaborate, but the Associated Press and other news organizations reported that Washington had offered to free Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year sentence in the US who once earned the nickname “The Merchant of Death.” .” On Sunday, a senior Russian diplomat said exchange talks had taken place. “This rather sensitive issue of the exchange of convicted Russian and American citizens is being discussed through the channels designated by our presidents,” Alexander Dartsev, head of the Foreign Ministry’s North American department, told the state-run Tass news agency. “These individuals are indeed being discussed. The Russian side has long sought the release of Viktor Bout. The details should be left to the professionals, based on the principle of ‘do no harm.’
