Russian Court Sets Brittney Griner's Appeal Hearing For Oct. 25

A Russian court has set Oct. 25 as the date for Brittney Griner’s appeal against her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession. The Moscow region court said it will hear her appeal.

Griner was convicted on August 4 and given a nine-year prison sentence in a Russian penal colony. She had admitted to having carried less than a gram of cannabis oil in her suitcase when entering Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. The eight-time all-star with the Phoenix Mercury and two-time Olympic gold medalist testified that she had inadvertently left cannabis oil in her suitcase as she packed in haste and had no criminal intent. Her defense attorneys at the time told the court that Griner is a medical marijuana patient in the U.S.

US-Russia Relations Strained

Griner’s arrest occurred just one week before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, thus exacerbating the already strained tensions between Moscow and Washington. 

Griner, recognized as one of the greatest players in WNBA history, was returning to Moscow where she’d been playing on a Russian team during the off-season for the past seven years.  

Prior to Griner’s conviction, the U.S. State Department declared Griner to be “wrongfully detained,” which Russia has rejected.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed in July that Washington had made a “substantial proposal” to bring Griner home along with former Marine Paul Whelan in exchange for the notorious Russian gun-runner Viktor Bout.