Brittney Griner testified in a Russian court Wednesday that her initial questioning with investigators was bungled by an interpreter who omitted part of what she was saying.
The WNBA star, who has been held by Russian authorities since her arrest at a Moscow airport in February, also said she was told to sign documents with which she was not familiar, and that officials failed to provide an explanation of what they meant.
“A customs officer sniffed the cartridges that were laying in my bag, packed them and sent them off for examination,” Griner was quoted saying by Moscow-based newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets. “After that they started to give me various documents and asked me to sign them. They brought a woman that called herself an interpreter, but she translated almost nothing, only short phrases: “surname,” “sign here.” No one explained my rights to me or what exactly I was signing. That’s why I called my family and my agent.”
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“I still don’t understand how they [the cartridges] ended up in my bag. I had no intention of breaking the laws of the Russian Federation. I was in a hurry, I was getting over COVID,” she was quoted saying.
Griner’s testimony came after she made a dramatic entrance into the courtroom, with her wrists handcuffed in front of her as she was accompanied by balaclava-wearing, bulletproof-vest clad Russian security agents.
Russian authorities have accused her of drug smuggling after vape cartridges were found in her luggage containing cannabis oil, while U.S. authorities contend she was “wrongfully” detained amid tensions between Washington and Moscow over Ukraine.
The basketball star pleaded guilty to the charges against her earlier this month, with her defense saying they hoped the move would elicit more leniency from the court. She said she had “no intent” to break the law. Her defense has argued that she had a doctor’s recommendation for the vape cartridges, which she accidentally packed in a hurry.
Griner’s testimony on Wednesday marked the first time she took the stand since the trial began on July 1. She faces up to 10 years behind bars on the charges, with experts saying a prisoner swap is her best chance at freedom after her guilty plea.
