MOSCOW (AP) — Greater than 4 months after she was arrested at a Moscow airport for hashish possession, a Russian courtroom has set the beginning date of the U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner for July 1.
The Phoenix Mercury star was additionally ordered to stay in custody all through her felony trial. She might face 10 years in jail if convicted on expenses of large-scale transportation of medication. Fewer than 1% of defendants in Russian felony instances are acquitted, and in contrast to within the U.S., acquittals will be overturned.
On Monday, the courtroom within the Moscow suburb of Khimki prolonged Griner’s detention for one more six months after she appeared for a preliminary listening to held behind closed doorways. Images obtained by the AP confirmed her showing in handcuffs. Griner had beforehand been ordered to stay in pretrial detention till July 2.
Griner’s detention and trial come at an awfully low level in Moscow-Washington relations. She was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport lower than every week earlier than Russia despatched troops into Ukraine, which aggravated already-high tensions with sweeping sanctions by the USA and Russia’s denunciation of U.S. 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 U.S. authorities’s chief negotiator.
That transfer has drawn extra consideration to Griner’s case, with supporters encouraging a prisoner swap just like the one in April that introduced dwelling Marine veteran Trevor Reed in change for a Russian pilot convicted of drug trafficking conspiracy.
Russian information media have repeatedly raised hypothesis that she might 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 discrepancy between Griner’s case — she allegedly was 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 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 the USA has repeatedly described as a set-up.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, requested Sunday on CNN whether or not a joint swap of Griner and Whelan for Bout was being thought of, sidestepped the query.
“As a basic proposition ... I've obtained no increased precedence than ensuring that Individuals who're being illegally detained in a technique or one other world wide come dwelling,” he mentioned. However “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, Maria Yarmush, a lawyer specializing in worldwide civil affairs, instructed Kremlin-funded TV channel RT.
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