Brittney Griner, the American basketball star detained in Russia on drug costs, instructed a courtroom Wednesday that she had been tossed right into a bewildering authorized system with little rationalization of what was taking place and what she may 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 wherein a lot of what was being stated remained untranslated. She stated she was additionally instructed to signal papers with no rationalization 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 battle in Ukraine. The battle has created the deepest rift between the USA and Russia because the finish of the Chilly Warfare.
When Ms. Griner arrived for the listening to carrying a long-sleeved T-shirt, she had her wrists shackled in entrance of her, and she or he 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 couple of 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
Ms. Griner had been touring to Russia to play with a crew in Yekaterinburg, about 900 miles east of Moscow, throughout the W.N.B.A. low season. She was charged with willfully smuggling the vape cartridges, violating Russian drug legal guidelines.
Earlier this month, Ms. Griner pleaded responsible, saying that she had made a mistake and had unintentionally carried a banned substance into Russia as a result of she had packed in a rush. Within the Russian authorized system, a responsible plea doesn’t finish a trial; legal professionals for Ms. Griner, who faces a potential 10-year sentence, count on it to proceed into August.
Ms. Griner’s legal professionals have stated they hope her responsible plea will make the courtroom extra lenient, however consultants say that her greatest hope is that the Biden administration finds a option to swap her for a high-profile Russian who’s being held by the USA.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken stated the USA had “put a considerable proposal on the desk weeks in the past” to facilitate the discharge of Ms. Griner and Paul Whelan, a former Marine who was sentenced final 12 months to 16 years in jail on espionage costs. He declined to debate particulars of the provide.
The US and Russia have “communicated repeatedly and straight on that proposal,” Mr. Blinken stated. He stated he anticipated to talk quickly with Russia’s overseas minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, in regards to the matter.
The Plight of Brittney Griner in Russia
The American basketball star has endured months in a Russian jail on costs of smuggling cannabis oil into the nation.
Testifying from an enclosed witness field on Wednesday, Ms. Griner stated she had been planning to journey onward to Yekaterinburg however was pulled apart throughout a baggage verify in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, in line with one in every of her legal professionals, Aleksandr Boikov, from the Moscow Authorized Middle.
Ms. Griner testified that she had been instructed to signal paperwork throughout her detention with out an evidence of what they meant. And Mr. Boikov stated that an interpreter supplied to Ms. Griner after her arrest translated “virtually nothing” and that she was held for 16 hours earlier than a lawyer got here to assist her.
Maria Blagovolina, a associate on the Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin and Companions legislation agency who can be representing Ms. Griner, stated in an announcement after the listening to that her consumer had “defined to the courtroom that she is aware of and respects Russian legal guidelines and by no means meant to interrupt them.”
“Brittney confirmed that she had a health care provider’s prescription for using medical hashish, and that in the usA. medical hashish is sort of a well-liked therapy amongst skilled athletes,” Ms. Blagovolina stated. “She emphasised that she by no means deliberate to carry it to Russia and use it.”
Ms. Griner additionally instructed the courtroom that Yekaterinburg “turned her second house, and she or he has at all times been having fun with her time in Russia,” Ms. Blagovolina stated.
Earlier than the testimony, Ms. Griner’s authorized crew 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 line with TASS, a Russian state information company.
