Lawyers for American basketball star Brittney Griner filed an appeal Monday of her nine-year Russian prison sentence for drug possession, Russian news agencies reported, in a case denounced by the United States that could lead to a high-profile prisoner swap.
Griner, an eight-time all-star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and two-time Olympic gold medalist, was convicted Aug. 4 after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
Griner admitted that she had the canisters in her luggage, but said she had inadvertently packed them in haste and that she had no criminal intent. Her defense team presented written statements that she had been prescribed cannabis to treat pain.
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