Brittney Griner to appeal drug conviction in Russia, lawyer says


The defense team for Brittney Griner, the American basketball star who was sentenced to prison in Russia for drug smuggling, said Monday it had appealed the sentence as Russian diplomats began speaking more openly about a possible prisoner swap with the United States.

Maria Blagovolina, a partner in the law firm that has represented Ms Griner, upheld the appeal against the verdict rendered by the Khimki City Court outside Moscow this month. The reason for the complaint was not immediately clear.

Ms. Griner’s legal team said it would most likely take up to three months to decide on the expected appeal. Russian officials have said all legal avenues must be exhausted before a possible exchange can be discussed.

But over the weekend, Aleksandr Darchiev, a senior Russian diplomat, said political negotiations are already underway with the United States, including discussing the Russians held by the United States, whom Moscow is seeking to release to ensure Ms Griner’s freedom.

“Discussion on the rather sensitive issue of prisoner exchanges between Russian and American citizens has continued in the channels established by the two presidents,” Mr. Darchiev, director of the North America Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry, told TASS. a state news agency.

One Russian whom Moscow is seeking to release, Mr Darchiev confirmed, is Viktor Bout, a jailed Russian arms dealer. Mr Darchiev said both Ms Griner and Paul Whelan, a former US Marine convicted by a court in Moscow on espionage charges, had been discussed as potential candidates for an exchange.

According to people familiar with the proposal, the Biden administration has offered to free Mr. Bout in exchange for Ms. Griner and Mr. Whelan. Ms Griner’s attorneys previously said they could withdraw the appeal if it hampered the exchange process.

The case of Ms Griner, who was arrested at a Russian airport in February and accused of having vape cartridges containing hash oil in her luggage, is tangled in deteriorating relations between Russia and the United States following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. This month a Russian judge sentenced Ms. Griner to nine years in a penal colony. American officials said she was “wrongly detained” and that her trial was politically motivated.

A day after the verdict, top diplomats from the United States and Russia said their governments were ready to negotiate the release of both the American basketball star and Mr. Whelan. The diplomats, Foreign Minister Antony J. Blinken and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia, said in separate press conferences that the negotiations would be conducted through a channel set up by their two presidents.