Brittney Griner legal team appeals against Russian drugs sentence

FILE PHOTO: U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, sits inside a defendants' cage after the court's verdict in Khimki outside Moscow, Russia August 4, 2022. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool

MOSCOW (Reuters) -The defence team of Brittney Griner, the U.S. basketball star jailed for nine years in Russia on drugs charges, appealed on Monday against her conviction for narcotics possession and trafficking.

Griner was convicted on Aug. 4 in a verdict that U.S. President Joe Biden called "unacceptable". Washington says she was wrongfully detained and has offered to exchange her for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States.