Russian Prosecutors Sentences Brittney Griner to 9 Years in Prison – UPDATE

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Update: Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison late this morning ESR.

Russian prosecutors asked a court outside Moscow to sentence American basketball star and America hater Brittney Griner to 9 1/2 years in prison as closing arguments in her cannabis possession trial were made Thursday.

“I ask you to appoint nine years and six months in prison with a sentence in a general regime colony with a fine of 1 million rubles ($16,500),” the state prosecutor was quoted as requesting to the judge, according to RIA.

Griner, 31, a Black Lives Matter activist, has been detained in Russia since February 17, after banned hashish oil vape cartridges were found in her luggage at Sheremetyevo Airport on the outskirts of the Russian capital.

The two-time Olympic champion has pleaded guilty in her case, but said the cartridges ended up in her luggage unintentionally.

Griner was traveling to Russia to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg during the WNBA offseason in her homeland – a move she has made for the past several years.

The decision comes down this evening.

A lawyer on Griner’s defense team, Maria Blagovolina, argued that Griner inadvertently brought the cartridges with her to Russia and only used cannabis as medicine while in Arizona, where medical marijuana is legal. A prosecutor, Nikolai Vlasenko, argued that Griner packed the cannabis oil deliberately.

Before her trial began in July, the State Department designated her as “wrongfully detained,” moving her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, effectively the government’s chief hostage negotiator.

That didn’t go over well with Russia. They keep complaining about it on RT.

Then last week, in an extraordinary move, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, urging him to accept a deal under which Griner and Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia on an espionage conviction, would go free. That would be in exchange for Viktor Bout, the Merchant of Death..

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday that Russia has made a “bad faith” response to the U.S. government’s offer, a counteroffer that American officials don’t consider serious. She declined to elaborate.

However, CNN later said Moscow wants Vadim Krasikov, a Russian national convicted of murder in Germany last year, to be included in a potential prisoner exchange.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke to Blinken last week after a request from Washington, officials in Moscow confirmed.

Russian officials have scoffed at U.S. statements about the case, saying they show a disrespect for Russian law. They remained poker-faced, urging Washington to discuss the issue through “quiet diplomacy without releases of speculative information.”

We do hope we get Griner back soon and we also hope she appreciates the USA a bit more when she gets here.


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Harrison Pendleton
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Harrison Pendleton
1 year ago

That’s right where she belongs, in that horrible place where no one will hear her screams, except by those inmates who are also screaming. Add the fact the longtime KKK associate Joe Biden has been attempting to downplay the documented and archived fact that he’s a black race-hater by trying to have the druggie “traded”. I don’t care who you are or where you come from—if you try to stupidly hustle illegal drugs in any country you’re going to prison, boo.

Last edited 1 year ago by Harrison Pendleton
Dave
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Dave
1 year ago

“You do the crime you do the time”. Russia wants 2 terrorists in trade for her and a former Marine. Trade the marine for the guy wanted for murder in Germany. She hates America so she should not be traded for, especially for the “Merchant of Death”. If she was white this wouldn’t even be a story (it would be ignored by the main stream media), but because she is black we have to feel sorry for her. Her “chip on the shoulder” the white man has put me down act is such a load of crap. She is richer than most people, and she feels entitled, but she should learn her liberal entitlement doesn’t give her a free pass in other countries. What a loser, and i hope she stays in the Russian prison for the full 9.5 years.

GuvGeek
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GuvGeek
1 year ago

If you do drugs, this is what happens when you take those drugs with you overseas. Some places have the Death Penalty.

Adonis
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Adonis
1 year ago

This anti American may enjoy staying in Russia to learn some appreciation for what she left behind.