Brittney Griner
MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian court has started hearing American basketball star Brittney Griner’s appeal against her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession.
Griner, an eight-time all-star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was convicted Aug. 4 after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
Griner is taking part in the session via video call from a penal colony outside Moscow where she has been held. Griner admitted that she had the canisters in her luggage, but testified that she had inadvertently packed them in haste and that she had no criminal intent.
Her defense team presented written statements that she had been prescribed cannabis to treat pain.
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