A Russian court on Thursday found American basketball star Brittney Greener guilty of trying to smuggle illegal drugs into Russia and sentenced her to nine years in a penal colony, according to her lawyers. The verdict ended a closely watched trial that her supporters say made her a pawn in a tense geopolitical battle over the war in Ukraine.
The verdict, effectively a foregone conclusion in a legal system where defendants are rarely acquitted, leaves Ms. Greener’s fate the subject of diplomatic bargaining between Russia and the United States. The parties are discussing the possibility of a prisoner exchange that would bring Ms Greener home from Russia, where she has been held since traveling there in mid-February.
Officials in Moscow said the verdict in her trial was a necessary precondition for a possible exchange of Ms. Greener, an Olympian who is one of the biggest stars of her generation. The United States has said she was wrongfully detained, held by Russia as a bargaining chip amid acrimony with the West over Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken discussed the issue with his Russian counterpart Sergey V. Lavrov last week, in their first telephone conversation since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but no breakthroughs were reported.
The judge also fined Ms. Griner 1 million rubles, about $16,300.
Ms. Greener’s defense team tried to convince the judge to be lenient, saying she brought hashish to Russia by mistake when she arrived there to compete for a team there during her WNBA offseason. and had no intention of violating Russian law.
They reiterated that request on Thursday, asking the court to take into account Ms. Greiner’s personality and the role she played in the development of Russian basketball. “There should be a lighter sentence,” said Maria Blagovolina, who represents Ms. Griner.
In comments to the court, Ms Greener spoke of her upbringing in Houston and the values her parents instilled in her, including “taking responsibility for your responsibilities”.
“That is why I pleaded guilty to my charges; I understand everything that was said against me in the accusations against me, but I did not intend to violate Russian law,” she said. “I want the court to understand that this was an honest mistake that I made while in a hurry and under stress trying to recover from Covid and just trying to get back to my team.”
Russian courts are known to hand down harsher sentences to high-ranking foreigners. In 2020, a Russian court sentenced Trevor R. Reed, a former US Marine, to nine years in prison, the harshest punishment for the type of crime he was convicted of. Mr. Reid was later exchanged for a Russian pilot who was convicted in the United States.
The Biden administration was under pressure from Ms. Greener’s wife and supporters to negotiate her freedom.
Last week, Mr Blinken said the US government had “put a substantial offer on the table” to the Russian side regarding Ms Greener and other Americans held in Russian custody. He declined to discuss details, but a person briefed on the exchange discussions said the United States had offered to swap a convicted arms dealer, Victor Booth, for Ms. Greener and another American jailed in Russia, Paul N. Whelan.
Russian officials have insisted that diplomatic disputes surrounding Ms. Greener remain behind closed doors. Dmitry S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said Tuesday that talks on a potential prisoner exchange “must be discreet.”
“Megaphone diplomacy and public exchange of views will not produce results,” he said.
Ms Griner, a star for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, arrived at a Moscow airport on February 17, en route to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, where she was playing for a local team during the off-season. Customs officials searched her luggage, where they found two vape cartridges containing less than one gram of hashish oil.
News of her detention only became public after Russia invaded Ukraine a week later. Ms Griner, 31, was charged with attempting to smuggle a significant amount of banned drugs into Russia.
At one of the initial hearings in her case, Ms Greener pleaded guilty to the charge but insisted she had no intention of breaking Russian law and that the illegal substance was in her luggage as a result of a hasty packing slip.
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