WNBA star Brittney Griner appeared in Russian courtroom on Friday had 30 days added to her pretrial detainment on Friday. Griner has been detained since February after being arrested at an airport outdoors Moscow.
A United States Department of State spokesperson instructed The Washington Post that U.S. diplomats had been ready to speak to Griner throughout Friday’s listening to and that she is doing “as well as can be expected in these circumstances.”
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration reclassified Griner’s arrest in Russia as a “wrongful detainment”, which added urgency to the United States’ efforts to negotiate with the Russians to deliver Griner again to the States.
Griner’s detainment occurred after officers mentioned they found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her baggage, and in accordance to ESPN, the offense might carry a sentence of up to 10 years in jail. She was returning to the nation to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg, her Russian membership that she performs with through the WNBA offseason.
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Griner’s listening to on Friday was held six days early, and now there could also be some extra readability as to why. Russia’s state information company has reported that U.S. diplomats have spoken with Russian authorities a few potential prisoner swap of Griner and convicted Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout. However in accordance to The Washington Post, this has not been confirmed by an American media outlet, and the State Department didn’t immediately handle the query. Bout is in the course of a 25-year federal jail sentence for smuggling arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for its use in opposition to U.S. armed forces.
Barring a swap of Griner and Bout that may deliver the WNBA star again to the United States sooner, the following replace on Griner’s case is not going to be heard in Russian Court till June.