American basketball star Brittney Griner was found guilty of drug possession and smuggling in Russian court on Thursday. Griner made her final appeal to the court earlier in the day and said she had no intention to break the law by bringing vape cartridges with cannabis oil when she flew to Moscow in February to play basketball in the city of Yekaterinburg. "I want to apologize to my teammates, my club, my fans and the city of [Yekaterinburg] for my mistake that I made and the embarrassment that I brought on them," Griner said, her voice cracking. "I want to also apologize to my parents, my siblings, the Phoenix Mercury organization back at home, the amazing women of the WNBA, and my amazing spouse back at home." She called it "an honest mistake," adding: "[I] hope in your ruling it does not end my life." Prosecutors were asking for a sentence of 9-½ years in prison in a case that reached the highest levels of U.S.-Russia diplomacy.
Under Russian law, the 31-year-old Griner faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. but judges have considerable latitude on sentencing.
Attention will now turn to the high-stakes possibility of a prisoner swap. Before her trial began in July, the U.S. State Department designated Griner as "wrongfully detained," moving her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, effectively the government's chief hostage negotiator.
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.