MOSCOW REGION, RUSSIA – JULY 27, 2022: US basketball player Brittney Griner (C back standing) who is on trial on drug smuggling charges, talks to her lawyers Maria Blagovolina (L front) and Alexander Boikov (C front) during a hearing at the Khimki Municipal Court in the town of Khimki, northeast of Moscow. Griner has been placed into custody until 20 December over an alleged attempt to smuggle cannabis oil into Russia through Sheremetyevo Airport. Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS/Sipa USA
Russia: US basketball player Brittney Griner in Khimki court charged with drug smuggling
MOSCOW (AP) — Since Brittney Griner last appeared in her trial for cannabis possession, the question of her fate expanded from a tiny and cramped courtroom on Moscow’s outskirts to the highest level of Russia-US diplomacy. The WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist is to return to court on Tuesday, a month after the beginning of the trial in which she could face 10 years in prison if convicted. As the trial has progressed, the Biden Administration has faced rising calls for action to win her release. In an extraordinary move, Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week spoke to Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, urging him to accept a deal under which Griner and Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia on an espionage conviction would go free.
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