MOSCOW (AP) — American basketball famous person Brittney Griner seemed in a Moscow-area courtroom for trial Friday, about 4 1/2 months after she used to be arrested on hashish ownership fees at an airport whilst touring to play for a Russian staff.
Alexander Zemlianichenko by way of Related Press
Griner used to be arrested in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. Police mentioned she used to be sporting vape canisters with hashish oil. The Phoenix Mercury middle and two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist may resist 10 years in jail if convicted of large-scale transportation of substances.
Fewer than 1% of defendants in Russian legal circumstances are acquitted, and in contrast to within the U.S., acquittals may also be overturned.
At a closed-door initial listening to Monday within the Moscow suburb of Khimki, Griner’s detention used to be prolonged for some other six months, to Dec. 20.
The athlete’s detention and trial come at an awfully low level in Moscow-Washington members of the family. Griner used to be arrested lower than per week ahead of Russia despatched troops into Ukraine, which irritated already prime tensions between the 2 nations.
The invasion resulted in sweeping sanctions imposed by way of america, and Russia denounced the U.S. for sending guns to Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday denied politics performed a job in Griner’s detention and prosecution.
“The details are that the well-known athlete used to be detained in ownership of prohibited drugs containing narcotic components,” Peskov advised journalists. “In view of what I’ve mentioned, it might’t be politically motivated,” he added.
Griner’s supporters have saved a low profile in hopes of a quiet answer, till Would possibly, when the State Division reclassified her as wrongfully detained and shifted oversight of her case to its particular presidential envoy for hostage affairs — successfully the U.S. executive’s leader negotiator.
Griner’s spouse, Cherelle, has steered President Joe Biden to safe her free up, calling her “a political pawn.”
“It used to be excellent to peer her in a few of the ones photographs, however it’s tricky. Each and every time’s a reminder that their teammate, their buddy, is wrongfully imprisoned out of the country,” Phoenix Mercury trainer Vanessa Nygaard mentioned Monday.
The trainer was hoping that Biden would “take the stairs to verify she comes house.”
Griner’s supporters have inspired a prisoner change like the only in April that introduced house Marine veteran Trevor Reed in change for a Russian pilot convicted of drug trafficking conspiracy.
Russian information media have time and again raised hypothesis that she might be swapped for Russian fingers dealer Viktor Bout, nicknamed “the Service provider of Demise,” who’s serving a 25-year sentence on conviction of conspiracy to kill U.S. voters and offering support to a 15 may organization.
Russia has agitated for Bout’s free up for years. However the large discrepancy between Griner’s case — which comes to alleged ownership of vape cartridges containing hashish oil — and Bout’s world dealings in fatal guns may make one of these change unpalatable to the U.S.
Others have instructed that she might be traded in tandem with Paul Whelan, a former Marine and safety director serving a 16-year sentence on an espionage conviction that america has time and again described as a setup.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, when requested Sunday on CNN whether or not a joint change of Griner and Whelan for Bout used to be being thought to be, sidestepped the query.
“As a basic proposition … I’ve were given no upper precedence than ensuring that American citizens who’re being illegally detained in a technique or some other around the globe come house,” he mentioned. However he mentioned he may now not remark “in any element on what we’re doing, except for to mention that is an absolute precedence.”