The US basketball star, Brittney Griner, who’s at the moment going through drug prices in Russia, was prescribed hashish medicinally, a court docket has heard.
Attorneys defending Griner advised a Russian court docket on Friday she was prescribed medical hashish in the USA for a continual harm, Reuters reported.
The Ladies’s Nationwide Basketball Affiliation (WNBA) star was detained at a Moscow airport in February for carrying vape cartridges containing hashish oil.
Griner, 31, has pleaded responsible to the fees, which carry a most jail sentence of as much as 10 years, however has mentioned she didn’t intend to interrupt the legislation.
Through the trial, prosecutors mentioned she was carrying less than a gram of hashish oil, which is designated as a managed narcotic in Russia.
Griner appeared in court docket on Friday for the fourth listening to within the trial.
Attorneys on her defence crew submitted paperwork on Friday arguing she “inadvertently” introduced the vape cartridges into Russia and had a allow for using medical hashish, issued within the state of Arizona.
The allow was mentioned to be for “extreme continual ache” brought on by a sporting harm.
Griner’s legal professional, Maria Blagovolina learn a letter from a US medical centre out in court docket.
It stated: “On Might 18, 2020, Brittney Griner underwent a medical examination… The affected person complained of acute continual ache as a result of a number of ankle accidents, in addition to accidents and ache sustained throughout her sports activities profession. The affected person complained of ache within the center again, decrease again, knees, and ankle ache.”
The letter was submitted as proof together with medical take a look at outcomes from 2018, and a medical report by an American physician from 2020 confirming Griner had “a continual debilitating illness brought on by extreme continual ache.”
The defence hopes the proof can be thought-about by the court docket as a mitigating issue and will depend in direction of a extra lenient sentence.
“The protection in the present day offered written proof, together with character supplies, medical paperwork and tax returns,” Blagovolina advised Reuters.
“Among the many medical paperwork is a physician’s be aware for the substance that Brittney Griner inadvertently left amongst her belongings when crossing the border.”
US President Joe Biden has mentioned the USA is doing all the things it might to safe her launch.