(Moscow) — More than four months after being arrested for possessing cannabis at a Moscow airport, American basketball star Brittney Griner courts on Monday for a preliminary hearing. I am planning to appear in court. trial.
Phoenix Mercury's star, considered by some polls to be the most talented female athlete in the United States, has been convicted of a large-scale drug transport for 10 years. You may face imprisonment. Less than 1% of Russian criminal defendants have been acquitted, and unlike the United States, acquittals can be overturned.
The hearing date has not been announced, but it is due soon. Greener was recently ordered to continue pretrial detention until July 2. A hearing in a court in Khimki on the outskirts of Moscow is to address procedural issues.
Greener's detention and trial took place at a very low time in the relationship between Moscow and Washington. She was arrested at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow less than a week after Russia sent troops to Ukraine.
In tension, Grinner's supporters were unobtrusive in hopes of a quiet solution. In May, the State Department reclassified her as illegally detained and transferred oversight of her case to a special presidential envoy on hostage issues. — Virtually the chief negotiator of the US government.
The move drew more attention to Grinner's case and took Marine Corps veteran Trevor Reed home in exchange for a Russian pilot convicted of a drug trafficking plot. Her supporters encouraged prisoner exchanges such as April.
Russian news media have repeatedly raised speculation that she could be exchanged for the Russian weapons merchant Victor Bowt, who is called the "merchant of death." She provides assistance to terrorist organizations.
Russia has instigated the release of Bout for many years. However, the discrepancy between the Greener case (she allegedly possessed an arc cartridge containing cannabis oil) and the global trade in Bout's deadly weapons has spoken to the United States of such an exchange. May not fit. She, in collaboration with Paul Wheelan, is a former Marine Captain and has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for a spy conviction, which the United States has repeatedly described as a setup.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked at CNN on Sunday if a joint exchange between Greener and Welan for a match was being considered and avoided the question.
"As a general suggestion ... I have no higher priority than ensuring that Americans who are somehow illegally detained around the world return home," he says. I did. However, "I cannot comment in detail on what we are doing except to say that this is an absolute priority."
Swap was first convicted Maria Yamash, a lawyer specializing in international civil affairs, told the Kremlin-funded television channel RT that she would have to be sentenced and then apply for a presidential amnesty.
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