Russian Court Upholds US Basketball Star Griner’s 9-year Drug Sentence

Russian Court Upholds US Basketball Star Griner’s 9-year Drug Sentence
Basketball player Brittney Griner appears on a screen via video link from the detention center during a court hearing to consider an appeal against her prison sentence in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Region on Oct. 25, 2022. Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters
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KRASNOGORSK, Russia—A Russian court on Tuesday dismissed U.S. WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner’s appeal against a nine-year sentence for possessing and smuggling vape cartridges containing cannabis oil.

Griner and her lawyers had asked for acquittal or at least a reduction in her sentence, which they said was disproportionate to the offense and at odds with Russian judicial practice.