American basketball star Brittney Greener was found guilty of drug possession and smuggling in a Russian court on Thursday.
Greener made her latest plea to the court earlier in the day and said she had no intention of breaking the law by bringing cannabis oil vape cartridges when she flew to Moscow in February to play basketball in the city of Yekaterinburg .
“I want to apologize to my teammates, my club, my fans and the city [Yekaterinburg] for my mistake that I made and the inconvenience I caused them,” Griner said, voice shaking. “I also want to apologize to my parents, my siblings, the Phoenix Mercury organization at home, the amazing women of the WNBA, and my amazing wife home again.”
She called it an “honest mistake”, adding: “[I] I hope in your rule it will not end my life.”
While recalling the evidence and giving his findings, the judge said Griner, 31, had illegally imported drugs into Russia.
Griner’s interpreter whispered to her through the bars of the defendant’s cell what was quickly read by the judge.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 9-½ years in prison in a case that reached the highest levels of U.S. and Russian diplomacy.
Under Russian law, Griner faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, but judges have considerable discretion in sentencing.
Attention will now turn to the high possibility of a prisoner exchange.
Before the trial began in July, the U.S. State Department designated Greener as “unlawfully detained,” moving her case under the supervision of its Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, effectively the government’s chief hostage negotiator.
Then last week, in an extraordinary move, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, urging him to accept a deal that would see Griner and Paul Whelan, an American jailed in Russia on espionage charges, released.
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