Disclaimer: This article may contain the personal views and opinions of the author.
U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner is still in a Russian prison for drug charges.
Her lawyers have offered a desperate plea and are trying to limit her jail time, which is currently set at 10 years.
Griner pleaded guilty to a drug charge after she was accused of bringing in vape cartridges that contained oils derived from cannibals through a Moscow airport.
Griner’s lawyers said she used marijuana to treat pain from injuries she got while playing basketball. They are hoping this will lighten her sentence for pleading guilty to drug charges.
“With the prescription in place, Brittney may have used it for medical but not recreational purposes,” said Griner’s lawyer, Maria Blagovolina, partner at Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin, and Partners law firm.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Amria Zakharova s not impressed by the defense and said:
If a U.S. citizen was taken in connection with the fact that she was smuggling drugs, and she does not deny this, then this should be commensurate with our Russian local laws and not with those adopted in San Francisco, New York, and Washington.
You understand, if drugs are legalized in the United States — in a number of states — and this is done for a long time, now the whole country will become drug addicted. This does not mean that all other countries are following the same path.
There is another hearing now scheduled for Wednesday.
Fox News reported:
During the trial, a U.S. Embassy representative fainted in the courtroom. According to Russian media, the embassy representative tried to leave during the hearing and fainted at the door. The person was reportedly taken to the hospital. It is unclear why the person fainted.
The U.S. State Department has classified Griner as “wrongfully detained.” Griner acknowledged she had the canisters with her but had no intention of breaking the law.
There is talk that Griner could be freed through a prisoner trade.
However, the possible trade would be Griner for a Russian arms dealer named Viktor Bout. He has been nicknamed the “Merchant of Death” and was convicted in federal court for conspiring to sell weapons to a terrorist group.
Moscow will agree to release Griner if the U.S. will release him.
The former judge of Bout’s trial said it might not be a bad trade, despite many people’s concerns over the unequal swap. Shira Scheindlin added that Paul Whelan should be added to the prisoner swap deal. Whelan is a former U.S. Marine who was arrested on espionage charges in 2018.
Slate reported:
Bout has served 11 years in federal prison, almost half of his 25-year sentence, and Scheindlin thinks that’s enough. In fact, she thought the sentence “was too high at the time.” Bout was convicted of conspiring to sell arms to the FARC, the Colombian guerilla group that the U.S. had designated as a terrorist organization. However, Bout himself “was not a terrorist in my opinion,” Scheindlin said—”he was a businessman.” But under U.S. law, 25 years was the minimum sentence for someone convicted of selling arms to terrorists, so she had no choice.
Now, though, she told the Times, “I think the United States’ interest in punishing him has been satisfied, and it would not be a bad equation to send him back if we get back these people who are important to us.”
A Russian court has authorized Griner’s detention until December 20.
I’m no Brittany Griner fan, but if she’s got cartridges derived from Cannibals instead of Cannabis, then they ought to let her rotten, Anti American a$$ loose. I didn’t realize that Russia forbade Cannibal oil and considered it the same as Cannabis oil…..
I wonder where she got the cannibals and how did she talk them into giving up their oils.
She Had Hash Oil. It Wasn’t CBD 🙄
Do the crime Do the time. She knew full well she was in the wrong and because of her, so called STATUS, she should be released. “BUL__HIT” She condemned her country and its flag. Take Labron’s advice and “STAY WHERE YOU ARE, WE THINK WE’RE BETTER OFF!”
Oh…So They Want to Trade a Person, Who Was Wrongfully Charged, Viktor Bout, for Someone Who Was Correctly Charged, Brittney Griner…?
hmmm, Seems Like a Biden Move