Test of Brittney Griner is scheduled to continue on Thursday in a courtroom outside Moscow, where the American basketball star – now one of the world’s most famous prisoners – is facing a possible prison sentence for drug crime.
Miss Griner pleaded guilty last week after Russian authorities allege she had a vape box with hash oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow on February 17. The trial is expected to continue for the court to investigate by evidence, her lawyer said, and Despite pressure from the United States to make a deal to free her, Russian officials have indicated that no negotiations are possible until when the proceedings are over.
The harshest outcome – a possible 10-year sentence in a Russian penal colony – remained on the table even after Ms Griner’s lawyers allege she had mistakenly packed the box of cigarettes.
With legal experts arguing that a guilty verdict is merely a foregone conclusion in a justice system that favors prosecution, Griner’s chances of freedom may depend on whether Washington, despite having peaceful relations with Moscow, is it possible to negotiate her release. . Russian officials said any negotiations could take place only after the trial was over.
According to experts, her best hope is for the Biden administration to make an exchange by releasing a Russian jailed in the United States. The Russian media have linked her case to Viktor Bouta Russian arms dealer known as “The Merchant of Death” who is serving a 25-year federal sentence in Illinois for conspiring to sell weapons to people who say they planned to kill Americans.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has stated that the US government will not back down until Ms. Griner and other “wrongly detained Americans” are brought home. But her case, which has attracted the attention of many in the American sports world, has led to criticism that Washington has not done enough to secure her release.
The case also deals with issues of race, gender and sexuality. Ms Griner is black and openly gay, and many of her supporters have worried that her chances of getting a fair trial are even more remote in Russia, a country where homosexuals are often often face discrimination.
American basketball superstar LeBron James recently appeared to criticize the US government’s effort to bring Ms. Griner home. “Now, how can she feel like America has her back?” Mr. James said in a trailer for an episode of his TV show, “The Shop: Uninterrupt”. “I would feel like, ‘Do I even want to go back to America?'” After facing backlash, he explained in a statement. tweet on Tuesday that he “didn’t bring down our beautiful country.”
Ahead of Thursday’s hearing, Griner’s attorney, Maria Blagovolina, said her guilty plea would not affect the progress of the trial.
“The court will consider all the evidence in all cases,” said Ms. Blagovolina, a partner at Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin and Partners, a law firm in Moscow. She added: “We hope that her confession will make the court more lenient.”
Whatever the outcome of the incident, the cost to Miss Griner, who has two Olympic gold medals, was heavy.
“I am terrified that I could stay here forever,” Ms. Griner wrote in one recent letter to President Bidenadded, “Please don’t forget me.”
