Brittney Griner is heading back Court to appeal her prison sentence.
According to reports, the hearing will take place on October 25th, one week after Griner’s 32nd birthday. Back in August, the WNBA star was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison, just one year shy of the maximum sentence of 10 years.
Griner was arrested in March at a Russian airport after a vape pen and cannabis cartridges were found in her luggage. She was arrested and charged with drug smuggling.
Since being sentenced, Griner’s legal team filed an appeal and also spoke out on how she’s been handling everything. “Brittney is stressed and very much concerned with the future,” her attorney, Maria Blagovolina said in a statement.
Alexander Boykov, the player’s other attorney revealed that the appeal process is “not very fast” and that it will take several months for the court to come up with a decision. There have been various outcries to get Brittney Griner home.
The United States government has reportedly been in negotiations discussing exchanging one prisoner for another. They are also working on getting another US prisoner home along with Griner.
After hearing about the potential prisoner for prisoner exchange, Blagovolina stated on her client’s behalf, “[Brittney is] quite happy to know that she’s not been forgotten and that there are some possible developments. But she’s quite realistic about what’s going on.”