WNBA Brittney Griner’s trial resumes amid intensified diplomacy

MOSCOW –

Since Brittney Griner final appeared in her trial for hashish possession, the query of her destiny expanded from a tiny and cramped courtroom on Moscow’s outskirts to the best degree of Russia-US diplomacy.

The WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist is to return to courtroom on Tuesday, a month after the start of the trial by which she might face 10 years in jail if convicted. Because the trial has progressed, the Biden Administration has confronted rising requires motion to win her launch.

In a unprecedented transfer, Secretary of State Antony Blinken final week spoke to Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, urging him to simply accept a deal beneath which Griner and Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia on an espionage conviction would go free.

Though particulars of the provide stay shrouded, Blinken’s public announcement of a proposal was at odds with the conference of holding prisoner-release negotiations tightly beneath wraps. When American Trevor Reed, serving time for assaulting a police officer, was freed in April in change for a Russian drug trafficker, no clues of an imminent swap had emerged.

The Lavrov-Blinken name additionally was the highest-level identified contact between Washington and Moscow since Russia despatched troops into Ukraine greater than 5 months in the past. The direct outreach dangers undermining a core message to US allies that isolating Russia might power the eventual withdrawal of troops from Ukraine.

It additionally underlines the general public strain that the White Home has confronted to get Griner launched, which has introduced some backlash. Former president Donald Trump strongly criticized the proposal that individuals aware of it have mentioned envisions buying and selling Griner and Whelan for infamous arms dealer Viktor Bout.

“He is completely one of many worst on the planet, and he will be given his freedom as a result of a doubtlessly spoiled particular person goes into Russia loaded up with medicine,” Trump mentioned.

Griner, talking from the defendant’s cage in a courtroom that hardly holds a dozen individuals, has acknowledged that there have been vape canisters containing hashish oil in her baggage when she was arrested at a Moscow airport in February. However she says she had no felony intent and that the canisters ended up in her baggage as a result of she was packing unexpectedly. Griner performed for a Russian ladies’s basketball staff within the WNBA low season.

To bolster her case, her protection attorneys have known as character witnesses from her Russian staff, UMMC Ekaterinburg, and introduced testimony from docs that she was prescribed hashish as a remedy for ache. Medical marijuana remedy is just not authorized in Russia.

Her attorneys say they hope such testimony will carry lenience from the decide, who they are saying beneath Russian legislation has leeway to think about mitigating components.

Acquittals are uncommon in Russian felony prosecutions — lower than 1% of instances. Sentences will be suspended.

If conviction is a foregone conclusion, it might additionally doubtlessly be a step ahead. Russian officers have mentioned no launch of Griner might happen till the judicial course of is accomplished.

Nonetheless, a Washington lawyer who previously was resident authorized adviser on the US Embassy in Moscow, mentioned there isn’t any formal requirement for a conviction earlier than an change.

“It appears that evidently she is actually getting used as a political bargaining chip — and the administration has already designated her as wrongfully detained presumably as a result of they assume she is getting used as a political pawn,” Tom Firestone informed The Related Press.

“Given the administration’s very robust public dedication to getting Whelan and Griner out, (Russia) could need to let this play out slightly bit longer and attempt to get extra extract extra concessions from the administration.” he mentioned. “They might impose a really vital sanctions as a strategy to maximize their leverage in negotiations going ahead.”

Russian officers have given no public trace of whether or not Blinken made headway in his name with Lavrov. It solely issued an announcement urging the People to pursue the matter although “quiet diplomacy with out releases of speculative data.”

Russia has repeatedly expressed annoyance with American statements on the case, saying they present a disrespect for Russian legal guidelines.

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Eric Tucker in Washington DC contributed to this story.