The Phoenix Mercury star and two-time US Olympic gold medallist additionally was ordered to stay in custody at some stage in her prison trial.
She might face 10 years in jail if convicted on prices of large-scale transportation of medication. Fewer than 1% of defendants in Russian prison instances are acquitted, and acquittals may be overturned.
US basketball star Brittney Griner has been ordered to face trial on Friday by a courtroom close to Moscow on hashish possession prices, 4 months after her arrest at an airport whereas returning to play for a Russian staff.
At Monday’s closed-door preliminary listening to on the courtroom within the Moscow suburb of Khimki, Griner’s detention was prolonged for an additional six months.
Photographs obtained by the Related Press confirmed the 31-year-old in handcuffs and searching straight forward, not like a earlier courtroom look the place she saved her head down and coated with a hood.
Her detention and trial come at a low level in Moscow-Washington relations. She was arrested at Sheremetyevo Airport lower than per week earlier than Russia despatched troops into Ukraine, which aggravated already-high tensions with sweeping sanctions by the US and Russia’s denunciation of US weapon provides to Ukraine.
Amid the tensions, Griner’s supporters had taken 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 US authorities’s chief negotiator.
Griner’s spouse Cherelle urged President Joe Biden in Could to safe her launch, calling her “a political pawn”.
Her supporters have inspired a prisoner swap like one in April that introduced residence marines 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 US residents and offering support to a terrorist organisation.
Russia has agitated for Bout’s launch for years, however the discrepancy between Griner’s case — she was allegedly present in possession of vape cartridges containing hashish oil — and Bout’s international dealings in lethal weapons might make such a swap unpalatable to the US.
Others have recommended 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 set-up.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken, requested on Sunday whether or not a joint swap of Griner and Mr Whelan for Bout was being thought-about, sidestepped the query.
“As a common proposition… I’ve bought no larger precedence than ensuring that People who’re being illegally detained in a method or one other all over the world come residence,” he mentioned, however added: “I can’t remark in any element on what we’re doing, besides to say that is an absolute precedence.”
Any swap would apparently require Griner to first be convicted and sentenced, then apply for a presidential pardon, mentioned Maria Yarmush, a lawyer specialising in worldwide civil affairs.
