KHIMKI, Russia (Reuters) -A handcuffed Brittney Griner said “I love my family” as the U.S. basketball star was led out of a Russian courtroom after being jailed for 9 years on drugs charges, a Reuters reporter at the court said.
Her voice quavering, and visibly in tears, Griner said she understood the sentence before being led away.
Outside the courtroom, Griner’s lawyer Maria Blagovolina, partner at Rybalkin Gortsunyan Dyakin and Partners, said: “She is very upset, very stressed. She can hardly talk. It’s a difficult time for her.”
Griner was convicted on charges of drugs possession and smuggling after she entered Russia with cannabis-infused vape cartridges. During her closing remarks, she said it had been “an honest mistake”.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
