This morning, Brittney Griner‘s legal team said they appealed her conviction.
The appeal comes as prisoner exchange discussions have picked up between the United States and Russia.
Griner was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to nine years in prison last week. In response, her legal team called it “absolutely unreasonable” and said, “we will certainly file an appeal.”
And today they did just that.
Maria Blagovolina, a partner at the law firm that has represented Griner, confirmed the appeal. According to the NY Times, the basis for the appeal wasn’t made clear as of yet.
While the appeal was expected, it could take up to three months for a decision to be rendered. According to Russian officials, before any exchange can happen, all legal channels must be exhausted.
The rumored exchange involves Americans Griner and former US Marine Paul Whelan, who has been imprisoned in Russian for over four years on espionage charges. In return, Russia wants convicted arms deals Viktor Bout.
Those discussions are currently underway according to Aleksandr Darchiev, the director of the North American department at the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“The discussion of the quite sensitive topic of prisoner exchange of Russian and American citizens has been ongoing along the channels set out by the two presidents,” Darchiev told state news agency TASS.
Those discussions were also confirmed by both Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia.
Brittney Griner has been imprisoned in Russia since February when vape cartridges and hashish oil were found in her bag at an airport outside of Moscow.
While her detainment was initially kept quiet, the calls to bring her home intensified quickly once news of her arrest spread.
Over the last seven months, Griner’s detainment has been extended multiple times.
In May, the US declared that the Phoenix Mercury star was “wrongfully detained,” which escalated the process to bring her home.
Now that an appeal has officially been filed, we all wait to see what’s next.
We will continue to keep you updated.
