KHIMKI, Russia — American basketball star Brittney Griner testified at her drug possession trial in Russia that an interpreter translated only a fraction of what was being said while she was detained at Moscow’s airport in February and that officials told her to sign documents, but “no one explained any of it to me.”U.S.
At one point in her testimony, her tone turned emotional as she said she has always followed the rules and tried to never let down her team. At the start of Wednesday’s session, Griner’s lawyers asked that she be allowed to testify outside the cage that is standard for defendants in Russian courts, arguing it was too small for the 6-foot-9 athlete to testify while standing. The judge denied the request but allowed her to speak while seated.
“With them being accidentally in my bags, I take responsibility, but I did not intend to smuggle or plan to smuggle anything into Russia,” she said. A woman who presented herself as an interpreter only told her where to sign, but did not “explain the contents,” Griner said, and “I didn’t know exactly what I was signing.”.At one point, she got on her phone “and I contacted my spouse, my sports agent and my club team’s translator” in Yekaterinburg, where she plays for a club in the Ural Mountains city.
“The translations weren’t very good,” Griner said. “I remember one time him receiving stacks of paper that he was supposed to translate to me, and he looked at them for a brief moment and exact words were: ‘Basically you are guilty.’”
She smuggled illegal narcotics into Russia..she knew the rules. Why is she afforded this white glove extraordinary favouritism?
Law Law Latest News, Law Law Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: CTVNews - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »