RIGA, Latvia – US WNBA star Brittney Griner is due to stand trial on Friday on drug charges in a Moscow court after customs officials said they found cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage at a Moscow airport in February. before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. . Greiner could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of possession of a “significant amount” of hashish. She has been in custody since February and has been remanded in custody until December pending the outcome of her trial. Her case is complicated by the severe downturn in relations between Washington and Moscow. Griner supporters in the United States say he is a hostage and a political pawn. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov dismissed the allegations last week, saying drug offenses are serious in Russia and many other countries. “We can not call her a hostage. Why call her a hostage? ” he said. “There are many countries where you can not enter with drugs,” Peshkov said. “She is also being prosecuted under Russian law. “Russia is not the only country in the world that has strict laws in this sense.” Griner supporters in the United States have called on President Biden to negotiate an exchange of prisoners like the one in April, when Russia exchanged former Marine Trevor Reed for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year prison sentence. Reed was jailed for nine years after being convicted of assault that endangered the lives of police officers. Greener is one of two Americans the State Department says are being held unjustly by Russia. Former US Marine Paul Whelan has been in prison since December 2018, when he traveled to Moscow for a friend’s wedding and was arrested in his hotel room. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison after being convicted of espionage in a closed trial. He denies the allegations and describes the case as political. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Sunday that the release of unjustly detained Americans such as Whelan and Greiner was his top priority. “I have no greater priority than to ensure that Americans illegally detained in one way or another around the world return to their homes, including Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner,” he told CNN. to comment on whether the US government sought a prisoner exchange involving Whelan and Griner. Russian media have speculated that Washington could trade Griner for Russian arms dealer Victor Bout, who has served in the United States for 25 years for plotting to sell surface-to-air missiles to a foreign terrorist group and plotting to kill American civilians. Bout, the inspiration for Nicholas Cage’s film “Lord of War”, is said to have smuggled weapons to warlords in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia for years – sometimes equipping both sides in a conflict – until arrested in 2008 in Thailand and extradited in 2010 to the United States. Russia has described Bhutto’s arrest and conviction as “illegal and political” and has demanded his release since 2008. Everything you need to know about Brittney Griner in Russia According to Russian customs officials, Greiner was about to fly from Moscow to New York when a detective dog at the Sheremetyevo International Airport “showed that there may be drugs in the hand luggage of a United States citizen,” a report in Cincinnati said. Customs officials said they found steam in her luggage, which was then analyzed and found to contain hashish oil. Customs posted a video of the search at the airport, apparently taken by surveillance cameras. In early May, the State Department found that Greener was being held unjustly and assigned Roger Carstens, the presidential envoy for hostage affairs, to oversee her case. The department has not clarified the basis of the decision. State Department spokesman Ned Price said at the time that the ministry had weighed in on each case, “whether it was Britney Greenere, Paul Whelan, or the Americans in Iran.” There will be unique factors in each of these cases. “ Price said Griner was “lucky to have a network that supported her from day one,” adding that the department had worked closely with her supporters. About a month before the invasion of Ukraine, the State Department issued a Level 4 security warning to the Americans, stating “do not travel” to Russia because of the risk of arbitrary law enforcement and harassment by Russian officials, as well as tensions with the Ukrainians. He warned that State Department officials had limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia. “Russian officials have unjustifiably delayed US consular assistance to detained American citizens and arrested American citizens on false charges, denied them fair and transparent treatment and sentenced them to secret trials and / or without providing any evidence.”
