American basketball player Brittney Griner on trial for drug trafficking in Russia

First modification: 02/07/2022 – 03:40

A new tug of war between the United States and Russia. American women’s basketball star Brittney Griner is on trial in Russia behind closed doors for drug smuggling. The case has acquired a special dimension with the conflict in Ukraine and the growing tensions between Washington and Moscow.

At the opening of the trial, on Friday, July 1, the prosecutor said that the quantity in solid state would have been less than one gram of cannabis. A customs official has already testified. However, the basketball player faces up to 10 years in prison. In the afternoon the trial was postponed until July 7.

The partial closure, with limited media presence in the courtroom, was decided at “the request of the defense, at the request of Griner herself,” said Polina Vdovtsova, a spokeswoman for the court in Khimki, a Moscow suburb. She arrived in court handcuffed and wearing a T-shirt with the image of American musician Jimi Hendrix.

The player of Phoenix Mercury she had arrived in Russia in February to play during the offseason in the United States, a common practice for basketball players who sometimes earn more abroad than at home.

The two-time American Olympic gold medalist (2016, 2020) was arrested upon arrival at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport with possession, according to the prosecution, of vaporizers and a cannabis-based liquid.

US authorities had initially kept a low profile about his case, which did not come to public attention until March 5.

‘Unfair’ detention for Americans

Against the backdrop of the continuing deterioration of US-Russian relations, in particular with the Ukraine conflict, the highest authorities in Washington then took up the case and declared that Russia was “unfairly” detaining the 1.80 meter star. meters tall, 31 years old.

His case is in the hands of the United States special envoy for detainees.

“The US embassy and the country care deeply about this case,” US embassy representative Elisabeth Rood said outside court.

Brittney Griner “told me to let him know that her spirits are high and she’s keeping the faith,” she added.

Defense lawyer Alexander Boykov said during a break that the defendant had not yet spoken at trial.

He also assured that he had “no complaints about his conditions of detention.”

In view of Russian jurisprudence in similar cases, the young woman can expect a harsh sentence, which she will have to serve in a Russian penal colony.

mutual accusations

Americans and Russians accuse each other of holding 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, jailed in the US since 2010 for drug trafficking.

Apparently, other such exchanges are being discussed.

Among the most notorious names are that of Paul Whelan, an American sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage and who maintains his innocence, and that of the well-known Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, arrested in Thailand in 2008 and serving a 25-year sentence. in United States.

A case similar to that of Brittney Griner led to a diplomatic settlement 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 former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who left with the young woman.

Naama Issachar was arrested in April 2019 while in transit at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on a flight from India to Israel with a connection in the Russian capital. Nine grams of cannabis were found in her checked luggage.

No compensation for Russia was announced at the time.

*With AFP; adapted from its original French version