PHOENIX, AZ – OCTOBER 8: Brittney Griner #42 of the Phoenix Mercury looks on during the game against the Las Vegas Aces during Game Five of the 2021 WNBA Semifinals on October 8, 2021 at Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/NBAE via Getty Images)
On Wednesday, WNBA superstar Brittney Griner testified for the first time since her arrest at a Moscow airport back in February.
The Phoenix Mercury center, who’s been “wrongfully detained” in Russia for 160 days, says a translation issue led her to sign documents without properly being told what she was doing.
Griner was arrested when Russian officials allegedly found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage at a Moscow airport. The women’s basketball star was traveling for her overseas professional career during the WNBA offseason.
In her testimony, Griner said she made the 13-hour flight from Arizona to Moscow while recovering from the COVID-19 virus. She said she doesn’t know how the cannabis-oil cartridges got in her bag, but that a doctor had recently recommended it to her.
“Translations were not very good. I remember one time seeing a stack of papers that he was supposed to transfer to me, and he looked at me in a brief moment, and his exact words were basically, ‘You’re guilty,'” Griner said, per Fox News.
Griner said she was never given an explanation of her rights or access to a lawyer. She said she was instructed to sign documents without any explanation of what they were for.
The Biden Administration has reportedly offered to exchange Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout for Griner and fellow American Paul Whelan.
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