Brittney Griner testifies in Russian cannabis trial

Brittney Griner took the stand in a Russian court Wednesday to testify in her very own protection in her cannabis possession demo, which could land the WNBA star in prison for up to 10 many years.

Talking as a result of a Russian translator in Khimki District Court outside Moscow, the 31-calendar year-old mentioned that she had been aware of the US State Department’s advisories warning People not to travel to Russia, but she explained she “could not enable her group down.”

Griner, who has played for Russia’s top women’s basketball workforce all through WNBA’s offseason, was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on Feb. 17 with vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage.

Griner testified that her rights had been not study to her when she was detained, and that at first she was not presented with the expert services of an interpreter, forcing her to depend on her own cellphone to translate documents connected to her arrest.

Griner said that even when a translator was later brought in, she struggled to recognize what was happening, and that she was instructed to sign some papers with no an rationalization.

On Wednesday, Griner was escorted into a courtroom by law enforcement, bending down to avoid banging her head against the doorway.

Putting on a extended-sleeved T-shirt from her WNBA crew, the Phoenix Mercury, Griner held up individual pictures and shook her lawyers’ arms as a result of the bars of the defendant’s cage ahead of getting a seat.

Griner’s protection has argued that she was prescribed clinical cannabis to ease the symptoms of a persistent harm, a cure not uncommon amongst elite athletes in nations wherever the material is authorized. It is, nonetheless, unlawful in Russia.

Griner, a two-time Olympic winner, pleaded responsible but denied she meant to break Russian regulation.

US officials and well known athletes say Griner has been wrongly detained and have identified as for her rapid launch, declaring she is remaining employed as a political pawn to protected the launch of a Russian detained in the United States.

With Article Wires