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Cherelle Griner recently appeared in her first television interview since her wife, WNBA star Brittney Griner, had her sentence appeal denied in Russian court, per ABC News.
On Tuesday (November 1), Cherelle Griner told hosts of The View that the verdict was "disheartening" and left her in "complete disbelief."
"I understand being in the field of law that every state, every country has their own rules, but this is just absurd," Griner said during the interview. "The crime and the punishment is disproportionate at its finest ... There are people convicted of murder in Russia who [have] a sentence way less than B.G., and it just makes absolutely no sense to me."
"That was the complete end of it. There's nothing more to expect from a legal standpoint and all eggs are in basket, you know, for our government and for America to see how important this issue is," she continued. "This could happen to anybody and we should be praying that we have a country that recognizes the importance of that and are willing to actually go get our Americans and bring them back home."
The WNBA star was first detained in Russia on February 17, when authorities found cannabis oil in her bag at a Moscow airport. She plead guilty to drug charges after admitting she "inadvertently" brought cannabis into the country and was sentenced to nine years in Russian prison, which falls just below the 10-year maximum.
Last week, Brittney appeared virtually for her appeal hearing, urging the court to reassess her sentence and again apologizing for her "mistake."
"I beg that the court takes in all of the stakes that were overlooked in the first court and reassess my sentence here," Brittney said, noting that being away from her family has been "traumatic."
Since her appeal was denied, Brittney will remain in Russian prison unless progress is made on the "substantial proposal" the Biden administration said it put on the table in July to secure the release of the Phoenix Mercury player and jailed American Paul Whelan, who has also been classified as "wrongfully detained."
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