US basketball player Brittney Griner (R) is escorted by police before a hearing during her trial on charges of drug smuggling, in Khimki, outside Moscow on Aug.
2, 2022. (Photo by NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images) Lawyers for American basketball star Brittney Griner on Monday filed an appeal against her nine-year Russian prison sentence for drug possession, Russian news agencies reported Monday.Griner, a center for the Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was convicted on Aug.
4. She was arrested in February at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport after vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage.Griner played for a women's basketball team in Yekaterinburg during the WNBA offseason.Lawyer Maria Blagovolina was quoted by Russian news agencies on Monday as saying the appeal was filed, but the grounds of the appeal weren't immediately clear.MOSCOW - U.S.
basketball star Brittney Griner was convicted Thursday in Russia of drug possession and sentenced to nine years in prison following a politically charged trial that came amid soaring tensions between Moscow and Washington over Ukraine and could lead to a high-stakes prisoner exchange between the two world powers.