Cherelle Griner, the wife of Brittney Griner, recently appeared on The View to share her thoughts on the Olympian’s denied appeal by a Russian court.
via: ABC News
Griner told the co-hosts that the denied appeal was “just disheartening” and left her in “complete disbelief.”
“I understand being in the field of law that every state, every country has their own rules, but this is just absurd,” she said. “The crime and the punishment is disproportionate at its finest … There are people convicted of murder in Russia who [have] a sentence way less than B.G., and it just makes absolutely no sense to me.”
“That was the complete end of it. There’s nothing more to expect from a legal standpoint and all eggs are in basket, you know, for our government and for America to see how important this issue is,” she continued. “This could happen to anybody and we should be praying that we have a country that recognizes the importance of that and are willing to actually go get our Americans and bring them back home.”
Brittney is a two-time Olympic gold medalist that plays professional basketball for Phoenix Mercury, but flew out to Russia during the WNBA’s off-season to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg. On Feb. 17, she was accused of having vape cartridges containing hashish oil, which is illegal in Russia, and detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Khimki.
On April 29, the U.S. State Department officially classified Brittney’s case as a wrongful detention. After nearly five months of being detained in Russia, Brittney pleaded guilty on drug charges and said in her testimony that she had no “intention” of breaking the law.
On Aug. 4, Brittney was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison. The judge of a Moscow-area court found that Griner had criminal intent and said she was guilty of smuggling and storing illegal drugs.
When asked about her thoughts on whether Brittney’s sentence was politically motivated, Griner told “The View” that “there’s no other way for me to see it except the fact that this is political.”
Griner noted that Brittney is an international basketball player that’s won championships, played undefeated seasons and was awarded MVP of WNBA All-Star Weekend.
“To see that the totality of the circumstances of who she is as a person was not taken into account when they rendered a decision, it makes me feel like this – at this point – has to be political,” Griner said.
“It’s not her footprint. Her footprint is amazing for Russia. She’s paying taxes there,” Griner continued. “She’s great for Russia.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin, who’s on the WNBA Board of Advocates, pointed out the pay inequity to the league compared to the NBA, saying the reason for Brittney’s travels to Russia was so she could supplement her salary.
“I’m grateful that my wife was willing to go overseas and make sure that I could go to law school and that we could have a home and things like that,” Griner told Hostin. She still encourages players to go overseas to play in the off-season if needed, but to “pay attention to the geo political nature of where you’re going, because B.G. left, and by the time she landed there was an e-mail from the WNBA that was saying if you’re going to Russia we recommend you not go and if you’re already there we recommend you come home, but it was too late.”
Last week, Brittney appeared virtually for an appeal hearing and urged the court to reassess her sentence and apologized for her “mistake.”
“I beg that the court takes in all of the stakes that was overlooked in the first court and reassess my sentence here,” Brittney said, adding that it has been “traumatic” to be away from her family.
