Brittney Griner Found Guilty on Drug Charges in Russia Case

Brittney Griner has been found guilty on drug charges by a Russian court.

Per NPR, Griner was found guilty by a Russian court on Thursday of charges including drug smuggling and possession. At the time of this writing, a sentence had not been announced.

Prior to Thursday’s announcement, per a report from the Associated Press, prosecutors in Russia had asked the court to sentence the WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist to nine and a half years in prison. Griner was initially arrested at an airport in Moscow back in February, with local authorities saying at the time that they had found “vape cartridges” during a baggage search. Those cartridges, they claimed, contained hash oil.

A statement from a WNBA rep the following month saw the league expressing its “full support” of Griner and noted the priority was to make sure she received a “swift and safe return” back to the U.S. The Biden administration, meanwhile, has repeatedly criticized the situation as an example of a wrongful detainment.

By July, Reuters and other outlets had reported that Griner had pleaded guilty, with Griner quoted as having said “there was no intent” behind her actions. “I didn’t want to break the law,” she said at the time.

More recently, attention has turned to to talks of a trade between the U.S. and Russia involving a possible swap that, per AP sources, would see the return of both Griner and ex-Marine Paul Whelan in exchange for Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer.

This story is being updated.