Brittney Griner's Lawyers Reveal How She's Doing After Sentencing

Brittney Griner‘s lawyers are speaking out after she was sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia.

The 31-year-old WNBA player was sentenced on charges of smuggling drugs into the country. She pled guilty to bringing less than one gram of cannabis oil into Russia, but said she had “no intents to break any Russian laws.”

Brittney‘s lawyers say that the nine-year prison sentence is nearly double what they were expecting her to receive.

Click inside to read about how she’s doing…

“She’s devastated. She is very upset and she’s honestly quite shocked, so she needs to digest what happened today,” her lawyer Maria Blagovolina told People. She said that people normally receive five-and-a-half or six-year sentences in this type of criminal court.

“So nine years, it’s pretty unusual and it contradicts the existing court practice in Russia,” she added. “That’s why we are really disappointed and very much surprised by this decision of the court.”

Brittney‘s other lawyer Alexander Boykov says they will appeal the decision, but it could “take a month or two or more than three. It’s not very fast.” They are hopeful that the U.S. State Department will reach an agreement with Russia to release Brittney.

Read the statement that President Biden made after the sentencing.