The trial of American women’s basketball star Brittney Griner for drug smuggling opened Friday behind closed doors in Russia, a case with strong political connotations in the midst of the Russian-American crisis.
“The trial has started,” Polina Vdovtsova, the spokeswoman for the court in Khimki, a town on the outskirts of Moscow, told reporters.
The closed session, with limited media presence in the courtroom, was decided at the “request of the defense, at the request of Griner herself”, she added.
She arrived in court handcuffed, wearing a t-shirt bearing the image of American musician Jimi Hendrix.
The Phoenix Mercury player came to Russia in February to play there during the American off-season, a common practice for basketball players who sometimes earn more abroad than at home.
It was upon her arrival at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport that the two-time Olympic gold medalist with the United States (2016, 2020) was arrested in possession, according to the charge, of vapes and liquid to cannabis base.
She faces up to 10 years in prison.
The American authorities had initially kept a low profile on his case which was not revealed to the general public until March 5.
Prisoner exchanges
Against a backdrop of continued deterioration in Russian-American relations, particularly with the conflict in Ukraine, the highest authorities in Washington then seized on the matter and declared that Russia was “unfairly” detaining the 2m03 star, aged 31 years.
His case is in the hands of the United States special envoy for those taken hostages.
“The US Embassy and the country care deeply about this case,” US Embassy representative Elisabeth Rood said outside court.
Ms Griner “told me to convey that the morale is good and that she is keeping the faith”, she added.
Defense lawyer Alexander Boïkov said during a break that the defendant had not yet spoken at trial.
He also assured that she had no “complaints about her conditions of detention”.
In view of Russian case law in similar cases, the young woman can expect a heavy sentence, to be served in a Russian penal colony.
Americans and Russians accuse each other of detaining their respective nationals for political purposes. Several prisoner exchanges have taken place in the past.
In April, former US Marine Trevor Reed, sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia for violence, was exchanged for a Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, imprisoned in the United States since 2010 for drug trafficking.
Other exchanges of this type would be the subject of talks.
Among the names most mentioned are that of Paul Whelan, an American sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage and who claims his innocence, and the famous Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout, arrested in Thailand in 2008 and who is serving a sentence of 25 years in prison in the United States.
A case similar to that of Brittney Griner resulted in a diplomatic agreement between Moscow and Israel.
In January 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin pardoned Israeli-American Naama Issachar, imprisoned in Russia for “drug trafficking”, during a meeting in Moscow with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who left with the young lady.
Ms. Issachar was arrested in April 2019 while transiting through Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow on a flight from India to Israel with a connection in the Russian capital. Nine grams of cannabis were found in his checked baggage.
No counterpart in favor of Russia had then been announced.