MOSCOW, 25 Oct. The Moscow Regional Court on Tuesday upheld the sentence of American basketball player Brittney Griner to nine years in prison for smuggling hash oil, a correspondent reports. Elena Vorontsova. The basketball player herself participated in the meeting via videoconferencing from the Novoe Grishino pre-trial detention center, located on the territory of a colony near Moscow. She has been there since March. At the Moscow Regional Court, Greiner said in her last speech that «nine years in prison is too much … and people who commit more heinous crimes get shorter sentences.» The athlete asked to pay attention to «those omissions that were made in the previous instance», confirmed that she regrets her mistake, which she made without malicious intent. asked to take into account the confession of guilt, Greiner's state of health, a positive reference from the sports community. Lawyer Oleksandr Boikov asked to cancel the sentence or impose a more lenient sentence. The prosecutor, in turn, asked to dismiss the complaint, since «the arguments are not based on the rules of procedural law, all the evidence underlying the accusation complies with the law.» Nevertheless, he agreed that the period of stay in the pre-trial detention center should be recalculated and the day in the colony should be counted as a day and a half in the detention center — in accordance with the law (which was eventually done). In addition to the defense, the meeting was attended by representatives of the US diplomatic mission headed with US Chargé d'Affaires in Russia Elizabeth Rud. In February, Griner, who arrived on a flight from New York, was detained at Sheremetyevo Airport. During the inspection, the American women found “vapes” with a liquid with a specific odor weighing a little less than a gram (0.702 g) in their hand luggage — the examination later determined that this was hash oil. During the consideration of the case in the first instance, it became known that a doctor from State of Arizona instead of traditional painkillers due to the side effects of the latter. In Russia, however, the use of such cannabinoids for medical purposes is prohibited.
