US basketball star Brittney Griner had an appeal against her nine-year jail term rejected by a Russian court.
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist with Team USA, was arrested at Moscow International airport in February after being accused of smuggling hashish oil in her luggage. She was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison - and the court near the capital upheld the sentence as a state prosecutor labelled it ‘fair’.
WNBA ace Griner apologised for her ‘honest mistake’ in her appeal hearing via video link. The 32-year-old’s lawyer, Alexander Boykov, declared no judge can genuinely believe the sentence is ‘in line with Russian criminal law’.
