Brittney Griner’s legal team submitted a letter to a Russian court on Friday indicating that she had been granted medical permission to use cannabis for chronic pain, capping off two days of crucial hearings focused on the detained American basketball player’s character and athletic career.
The WNBA star pleaded guilty to drug charges last week after Russian customs officials discovered vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow airport in February.
Brittney Griner, who was playing basketball in Russia during her off-season break from the Phoenix Mercury, has been detained since, putting the Biden administration in a diplomatic bind and leaving her distraught family pleading for her release.
According to the Associated Press, a guilty plea does not end trial-like proceedings in Russia, and in additional hearings this week, her team presented evidence of her good character, her successful athletic career in both Russia and the United States, and her legitimate reason for possessing cannabis oil.
According to the Associated Press, the letter submitted to the court on Friday proved that an attending physician in Arizona gave her recommendations to use medical cannabis, her lawyer Maria Blagovolina said.
“The permission was issued on behalf of the Arizona Department of Health,” she added.
Test results were also submitted and showed that Brittney Griner met all anti-doping requirements. On Thursday, the director and team captain of the Russian team she was playing for, UMMC Ektaerinburg, testified on her behalf.
“Today, our task was to tell the court about her as an athlete and as a person, about her role and contribution to the success of the Ekaterinburg club and Russian women’s basketball on the whole,” Maxim Ryabkov said after testifying, adding that it was the first time he’d seen Griner since her detainment.
“Thank God, she feels OK and looks good,” he said. Team Captain Yevgenia Belyakova also testified in the closed-door hearing Thursday.
“In the hearings yesterday and today, what became very clear is the tremendous amount of respect and admiration both in the United States and here in Russia where Miss Griner has been playing basketball for seven years, not only for her professional achievements but for her character and integrity,” U.S. Embassy Charge D’Affaires Elizabeth Rood said outside the court in Moscow.
Griner admitted to having the cartridges but claimed she had no criminal intent and had packed them by mistake in a hurry.
She faces up to ten years in prison, however, Russian media speculates that officials will negotiate a prisoner swap for Viktor Bout, the so-called Merchant of Death, who is serving a 25-year sentence in the United States for attempting to sell heavy weaponry to a terror group so that it could attack US forces assisting the Colombian government.
The United States is unlikely to see such a crooked swap as ideal, but President Biden has few options after opposing Russia’s war in Ukraine. Russian officials have repeatedly warned the United States that putting pressure on Russia would be “futile.”
Griner’s next hearing is scheduled for July 26, and her lawyers anticipate that the proceedings will conclude in August.
