A court in Russia has rejected the appeal of two-time Olympic champion Brittney Griner after she was convicted of drug charges in August.
Griner’s lawyer Alexander Boykov told the court, “No judge, hand on heart, will honestly say that Griner’s nine-year sentence is in line with Russian criminal law.” A U.S. diplomat at the hearing said the sentence was “excessive and disproportionate.”
However the Moscow Regional Court upheld the sentence, with the state prosecutor calling the nine-year term “fair.”
Griner was able to attend the hearing via video from Correctional Colony No. 1 in Novoye Grishino, located just north of Moscow. The basketball star, who recently turned 32, apologized for her “honest mistake” and said the ordeal has been “very, very stressful.”
She has been in Russia since being detained on February 17 at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport for carrying vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage.