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MOSCOW (AP) — Jailed American basketball star Brittney Griner on Thursday pleaded guilty to drug possession & smuggling during her trial in Moscow but said she had no intention of committing a crime.
Reports quoted Griner as saying through an interpreter at the court hearing that she had acted unintentionally because she was packing in haste.
Griner was detained in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport after vape canisters with cannabis oil allegedly were found in her luggage. She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of large-scale transportation of drugs.
The trial of the Phoenix Mercury star & 2-time Olympic gold medalist began last week amid a growing chorus of calls for Washington to do more to secure her freedom nearly 5 months after her arrest.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov bristled at the U.S. description of Briner as “wrongfully detained” and warned that “attempts by the American side to make noise in public ... don’t help the practical settlement of issues.”
“The persistence with which the U.S. administration ... describes those who were handed prison sentences for serious criminal articles & those who are awaiting the end of investigation and court verdicts as ‘wrongfully detained’ reflects Washington’s refusal to have a sober view of the outside world,” Ryabkov snapped.
Russian news media have repeatedly speculated that Griner could be swapped for Russian arms trader Viktor Bout, nicknamed “the Merchant of Death,” who is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. on conviction of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens & providing aid to a terrorist organization.
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