WNBA star Brittney Griner to appeal 9-year jail sentence for drug possession on Oct. 25

A Russian court on Monday set Oct. 25 as the date for American basketball star Brittney Griner's appeal against her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession.

Griner, an eight-time all-star centre with the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medallist, was convicted Aug. 4 after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport.

The Moscow region court said it will hear her appeal.

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

Her February arrest came at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington, just days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine. At the time, Griner, recognized as one of the greatest players in WNBA history, was returning to Russia, where she played during the U.S. league's off-season.

The nine-year sentence was close to the maximum of 10 years, and Griner's lawyers argued after the conviction that the punishment was excessive. They said in similar cases defendants have received an average sentence of about five years, with about a third of them granted parole.

Before her conviction, the U.S. State Department declared Griner to be "wrongfully detained" - a charge that Russia has sharply rejected.

Reflecting the growing pressure on the Biden administration to do more to bring Griner home, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the unusual step of revealing publicly in July that Washington had made a "substantial proposal" to get Griner home, along with Paul Whelan, an American serving a 16-year sentence in Russia