Brittney Griner lawyers appeal against nine-year Russian jail sentence

Lawyers for American basketball star Brittney Griner have filed an appeal against her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession.

Griner, a centre for the Phoenix Mercury who had been playing in Yekaterinburg during the WNBA off-season, was arrested in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport after vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage. She was convicted on 4 August.

Lawyer Maria Blagovolina said on Monday the appeal had been filed, but declined to give details. Alexander Boykov, a lawyer at Moscow Legal Centre who represented Griner in court, told Reuters the appeal would be mainly based on alleged violations in the course of the investigation.

Griner’s defence team argued in court that some of her case files had been drawn up without being translated for her into English. It was not clear how soon an appeal could be heard.

A formal appeal may indicate that no political deal has been reached for a prisoner swap involving Griner between Russia and the US. Russian officials have said that they would consider an exchange but only after Griner’s appeal process had been exhausted and her sentence came into effect.

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Blagovolina and Boykov said after the conviction that the sentence was excessive and that in similar cases defendants have received an average sentence of about five years, with about a third of them granted parole.

Griner admitted that she had the cannabis oil canisters in her luggage, but said she had inadvertently packed them in haste and that she had no criminal intent. Her defence team presented written statements that she had been prescribed