Monday, Brittney Griner’s legal team announced an appeal against the American basketball player’s guilty conviction and nine-year jail term on drug smuggling charges in Russia.
Griner was detained for possessing marijuana-laced vape cartridges at a Moscow airport in February, during escalating tensions between Washington and Moscow and just before to Vladimir Putin’s continuing invasion of Ukraine.
During the WNBA’s offseason, the player was her route to Yekaterinburg, in western Russia, to play for a local club.
Griner pled guilty to the crime but asked for mercy, claiming that she packed the cartridges accidently and that marijuana was prescribed to her by a U.S. doctor to assist her deal with pain from basketball-related ailments. A court in the Moscow area convicted her guilty at the beginning of August.
Before her trial started in July, the State Department deemed her to be “wrongfully held,” transferring her case to its special presidential envoy for hostage matters – the U.S. government’s top hostage negotiator.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States has presented Russia with a “serious proposal” for a prospective prisoner swap. According to media sources, Griner and Paul Whelan would be traded for Viktor Bout, a convicted weapons dealer dubbed the “Merchant of Death” who has been in U.S. detention for almost a decade.
In its first answer, the Kremlin indicated that a swap would not be considered until a judgment was reached in Griner’s case. Moscow also cautioned the United States against using public pressure to win the athlete’s release. Dmitry Peskov, the president’s spokesman, has said several times that the negotiations should take place behind closed doors and via “established channels.”
However, over the weekend, Russian authorities revealed that conversations were ongoing and admitted that Moscow was in fact seeking a trade for Bout.
Alexander Darchiev, a prominent Russian diplomat, told the state-run news agency TASS on Saturday, “The debate of the very delicate matter of the exchange of imprisoned Russian and American nationals is taking place within the channels set by our presidents.”
In reference to the rumors regarding Griner, Whelan, and Bout, he said, “The aforementioned personalities are being evaluated.”
“The Russian side has long sought the release of Viktor Bout,” Darchiev said.