WNBA star Brittney Griner was given a 9-year jail sentence for drug charges by a Russian court.

Brittney Griner was found guilty of drug smuggling and possession by a Russian court. 

After a month-long trial and about six months after the basketball star was detained

at an airport in the Moscow region with cannabis vape cartridges in her luggage, the eagerly anticipated judgement was announced.

The judge gave Griner a nine-year jail sentence. The Russian prosecution had asked for a sentence of

 nine years and six months in a prison colony because her charges carried a maximum term of ten years.

Given that Russian criminal courts have a reported 99 percent conviction rate, the trial's verdict was not particularly surprising. 

But it seems as though politics will now decide Griner's fate.

Under pressure from the public to secure her release, the Biden administration has tried to negotiate with Russia to free both her and another imprisoned American, Paul Whelan.

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