WNBA star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty in Russia on Thursday to drug possession and smuggling charges in a court near Moscow.
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medallist who the U.S. State Department has classified as wrongfully detained, faces up to 10 years in prison under the charge.
“I’d like to plead guilty, your honor. But there was no intent. I didn’t want to break the law,” Ms. Griner said in English, which was then translated into Russian, Reuters reported.
The 31-year-old has been detained in Russia since Feb. 17, accused by the Russian authorities of having a vape cartridge with hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow, according to the New York Times. Her attorney, Aleksandr Boikov, said the cartridges appeared in her luggage “because of carelessness.”
Griner left the courtroom without giving any comment to reporters, and her next hearing is set for July 14. Griner’s plea came on the second day of her trial, which began last week when a prosecutor accused her of smuggling less than a gram of cannabis oil in her luggage.
CNN is reporting that according to TASS, another state news agency, prosecutors argue Griner intended to import the drugs into Russia’s territory and put the prohibited substances into a backpack and a suitcase.
Griner’s guilty plea came hours after a top Russian diplomat, Sergei A. Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, lashed out at the Biden administration for trying to “foment hype” around her case.
This occurred just one day after President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke by phone with Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner. Cherelle Griner was “grateful” for the call from Biden and Harris, she said in a statement Wednesday.
It looks like nothing will be done until after the Russian court reaches its verdict, and then, Mr. Ryabkov indicated that Moscow would be prepared to negotiate her fate.
“We have a long-established form of discussing these matters,” Mr. Ryabkov told reporters on Thursday in Moscow, according to the Interfax news agency. “The American side’s attempts to foment hype and make noise in the public environment are understandable, but they don’t help to practically resolve issues.”
