Trial for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner begins in Moscow-area court

American basketball star Brittney Griner went on trial Friday, 4 1/2 months after her arrest on expenses of possessing hashish oil whereas returning to play for a Russian group, in a case that unfolded amid tense relations between Moscow and Washington.

The Phoenix Mercury centre and two-time U.S. Olympic gold medallist was arrested in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport after police stated she was carrying vape canisters with hashish oil. She might withstand 10 years in jail if convicted of large-scale transportation of medicine.

Fewer than 1 per cent of defendants in Russian felony circumstances are acquitted, and in contrast to within the U.S., acquittals could be overturned.

Her case comes at an awfully low level in Moscow-Washington relations. Griner was arrested lower than every week earlier than Russia despatched troops into Ukraine, which aggravated already excessive tensions between the 2 nations. The U.S. then imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow, and Russia denounced the U.S. for sending weapons to Ukraine.

Elizabeth Rood, U.S. cost d’affaires in Moscow, was in courtroom and stated she spoke with Griner, who “is doing in addition to could be anticipated in these troublesome circumstances.”

“The Russian Federation has wrongfully detained Brittney Griner,” Rood stated. “The practise of wrongful detention is unacceptable wherever it happens and is a menace to the protection of everybody touring, working, and dwelling overseas.”

She stated the U.S. authorities, from its highest ranges, “is working onerous to convey Brittney and all wrongfully detained U.S. nationals dwelling safely.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday denied politics performed a job in Griner’s detention and prosecution.

“The info are that the well-known athlete was detained in possession of prohibited treatment containing narcotic substances,” Peskov instructed reporters. “In view of what I’ve stated, it may possibly’t be politically motivated,” he added.

Prisoner swap

Griner’s supporters had saved a low profile in hopes of a quiet decision till Could, 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. authorities’s chief negotiator.

Griner’s spouse, Cherelle, has urged President Joe Biden to safe her launch, calling her “a political pawn.”

“It was good to see her in a few of these photos, but it surely’s powerful. Each time’s a reminder that their teammate, their buddy, is wrongfully imprisoned in a foreign country,” Phoenix Mercury coach Vanessa Nygaard stated Monday.

Griner’s supporters have inspired a prisoner swap just like the one in April that introduced dwelling Marine veteran Trevor Reed in alternate for a Russian pilot convicted of drug trafficking conspiracy.

Russian information media have repeatedly raised hypothesis that she could possibly be swapped for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, nicknamed “the Service provider of Loss of life,” who’s serving a 25-year sentence on conviction of conspiracy to kill U.S. residents and offering assist to a terrorist group.

Russia has agitated for Bout’s launch for years. However the extensive discrepancy between Griner’s case — which entails alleged possession of vape cartridges containing hashish oil — and Bout’s international dealings in lethal weapons might make such a swap unpalatable to the U.S.

Others have urged that she could possibly be traded in tandem with Paul Whelan, a former Marine and safety director serving a 16-year sentence on an espionage conviction that the US has repeatedly described as a setup.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, when requested Sunday on CNN whether or not a joint swap of Griner and Whelan for Bout was being thought-about, sidestepped the query.

“As a common proposition … I’ve obtained no greater precedence than ensuring that Individuals who’re being illegally detained in a technique or one other around the globe come dwelling,” he stated. However he stated he couldn’t remark “in any element on what we’re doing, besides to say that is an absolute precedence.”