Brittney Griner, the American basketball star detained in Russia on drug prices, informed a courtroom Wednesday that she had been tossed right into a bewildering authorized system with little clarification of what was taking place and what she would possibly do to attempt to defend herself.
Ms. Griner described arriving in Russia after an exhausting 13-hour flight — and shortly after recovering from Covid — and discovering herself in an interrogation during which a lot of what was being stated remained untranslated. She stated she was additionally informed to signal papers with no clarification of what they have been.
It was her first courtroom testimony about her arrest in a case that has taken on outsize significance due to the warfare in Ukraine. The battle has created the deepest rift between the United States and Russia powers for the reason that finish of the Cold War, and the tense environment on the courthouse mirrored the fraught geopolitical second.
When Ms. Griner arrived for the listening to carrying a long-sleeved T-shirt, she had her wrists shackled in entrance of her, and he or she was flanked by a coterie of Russian safety brokers, together with some carrying bulletproof vests, their faces coated by balaclavas.
The Russian authorities detained Ms. Griner, 31, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who performs for the Phoenix Mercury, a few week earlier than President Vladimir V. Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine in February. She was accused of getting two vape cartridges of cannabis oil in her baggage when she arrived at an airport close to Moscow. Russia didn’t make her detention public till after the invasion started.
What to Know About Brittney Griner’s Detention in Russia
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Why was she in Russia? Griner was in Russia enjoying for a global workforce in the course of the W.N.B.A. low season. Trading relaxation for abroad competitors is widespread among the many league’s gamers for a lot of causes, however typically the largest motivation is cash.
Ms. Griner had been touring to Russia to play with a workforce in Yekaterinburg, about 900 miles east of Moscow, in the course of the W.N.B.A. low season. She was charged with willfully smuggling the vape cartridges, violating Russian drug legal guidelines.
She now faces a attainable 10-year sentence. The verdict is predicted in August, her legal professionals say.
In courtroom on Wednesday, Ms. Griner testifying from an enclosed witness field, stated she had been planning to journey onward to Yekaterinburg however was pulled apart throughout a baggage test in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, in keeping with reporters from Reuters and The Associated Press who have been within the courtroom. Two cartridges containing cannabis oil have been present in her luggage.
Ms. Griner testified Wednesday that she had been informed to signal paperwork throughout her detention with out an evidence of what they meant.
Ms. Griner additionally “explained to the court that she knows and respects Russian laws and never intended to break them,” Maria Blagovolina, a accomplice on the Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin and Partners regulation agency who’s representing the basketball participant, stated in an announcement after the listening to.
“Brittney confirmed that she had a doctor’s prescription for the use of medical cannabis, and that in the U.S.A. medical cannabis is quite a popular treatment among professional athletes,” Ms. Blagovolina stated. “She emphasized that never planned to bring it to Russia and use it.”
The Plight of Brittney Griner in Russia
The American basketball star has endured months in a Russian jail on prices of smuggling cannabis oil into the nation.
Ms. Griner additionally informed the courtroom that “Ekaterinburg became her second home, and she has always been enjoying her time in Russia,” the lawyer stated.
Before the testimony, Ms. Griner’s authorized workforce requested the decide to permit the basketball participant to testify exterior the enclosed witness field due to her top. The decide, Anna Sotnikova, refused the request however allowed Ms. Griner to testify whereas seated, in keeping with TASS, a Russian state information company.
Ms. Griner pleaded responsible within the case this month, saying that she had made a mistake and unintentionally carried a banned substance into Russia as a result of she had packed in a rush. In the Russian justice system, trials are carried out even when defendants plead responsible. Ms. Griner’s legal professionals have stated they hope her plea will make the courtroom extra lenient.
Experts say that her finest hope is that the Biden administration finds a strategy to swap her for a high-profile Russian who’s being held by the United States. But the administration is reluctant to create any incentive for the arrest or abduction of Americans overseas.