only 1% of those facing trials in russia are acquitted. 99% are found guilty. reaction from a few moments from the executive director of the women s national basketball player s association, who has been fighting for her return. plus, any moment, we re expecting a civil rights announcement from attorney general merrick garland at the department of justice. but we begin this hour, of course, with the brittney griner drug trial in in russia. the russian court finding her guilty. they have asked to sentence her to nine and a half years in prison and fine her $1 million ruble, which is more than $16,000. a conviction now has certainly been announced in that court in russian. today, greiner addressing thecl appealing for leniency. i made an honest mistake, and i hope that in your ruling, that it doesn t end my life here. i know that everybody keeps talking about political pawn and politics, but i hope that that is far from this courtroom. i want to say again that i had no intent
russia, was sentenced to nine years in prison for nothing more than an unintentional oversight. this is a miscarriage of justice. the u.s. department of state has determined that miss griner has been wrongfully detained. together with consular officers from the u.s. embassy office in moscow, i attended every session of miss griner s trial. we will continue to be engaged in this case. we will remain in frequent contact with miss griner and with her legal team. secretary of state blinken, president biden s president biden s national security team, and the entire american government remain committed to bringing miss griner home safely to her family and friends and loved ones. and i in charge of the u.s. embassy in moscow will also do my best to bring her home safely.
moscow, where she can see elizabeth mood from the embassy, see her attornes or take her to a worse place, like where navalny was taken? i can t speak for what the russians are planning to do here. she should never have been on trial to begin with. so there should be no sentence. she shouldn t have been put on trial. short of that, until we can get her home, we re going to continue to insist, as we must, to have consular access to missus griner so we can continue to make sure that we have that communication going and make sure she s being well treated. i don t want to overlook the fact that as u.s. officials have been predicting, the chinese have really ramped up their military exercises and today, they say that they have a nuclear submarine in the mix. they fired missiles. some landed in the sea of japan.
charge of the embassy. and she has been freakily speaking about, talking to brittney griner, and griner being as well as could be expected under the circumstances. and of course, we understand also earlier today that she was weeping at times, when she was addressing the court about how this has affected her life. and she expressed so much contrition and apologies to the court, explaining the circumstances, but the judge, you know, dismissed all of that in that long reading of the sentence. nine years, nine and a half years is what the prosecution had asked for. just to put in context of the diplomatic talks, secretary blinken is in cambodia rowan at an asian summit, it s the asean association of asian ministers from all over asia.
i will continue to do everything to care for the safety and well-being of miss griner and of all u.s. citizens detained in the russian federation. i have no other comments. that care for the safety and well-being of misgriner and of all u.s. citizens detained in the russian federation, we have no higher priority. thank you. i have no further comments. difficulty there sorry for the audio difficulty. we ll clean up that audio. the wrong microphone was being played out. that was elizabeth mood, the top american diplomat in russia right now. the ambassador is no there, but i think we have at the white house, and teri jackson, i know you re standing by as well, from the wnba players association, i