American basketball star Brittney Griner returned to a Russian courtroom Tuesday, holding up personal pictures of her loved ones as her trial for cannabis possession wrapped up and calls for diplomatic efforts to secure her release intensified.
If convicted, the WNBA player and two-time Olympic gold medalist could face a decade behind bars.
Closing arguments in the high-profile case are expected to start at the Khimki City Court, located just outside Moscow, on Thursday morning.
‘LOADED UP WITH DRUGS’: TRUMP SLAMS POSSIBLE PRISONER SWAP WITH RUSSIA
Griner was escorted into the courtroom Tuesday in handcuffs and was placed inside a cage. While inside the cage, she held up two pictures, purportedly of her loved ones.
During the hearing, prosecutors called a state narcotics expert who analyzed the cannabis found inside Griner’s luggage. Her defense brought in a specialist who challenged the finding, arguing it was flawed and didn’t conform to official rules, the Associated Press reported.
Griner, 31, has been detained in Russia since February after officials at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport found vaping canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage.
Griner said she had a prescription for it, but because Russia does not allow medical cannabis, she was detained and charged.
Last week, the United States proposed a prisoner swap that called for the release of Griner and Paul Whelan, an American convicted of espionage. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Moscow made a “bad faith” counteroffer that America would not consider taking.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused the U.S. of “megaphone diplomacy” and said the move would harm negotiations from moving forward.
On Friday, former President Donald Trump called Griner, a center for the Phoenix Mercury, “spoiled” and said he did not approve of the Biden administration’s proposed plan to exchange Griner and Whelan for Viktor Bout, a weapons trafficker imprisoned in the U.S. Trump, who made the comments during an appearance on The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show podcast, said Griner should take personal responsibility for her actions and said she traveled to Russia “loaded up with drugs.”
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“We’re supposed to get her out for an absolute killer and one of the biggest arms deals in the world,” Trump said. “Killed many Americans. Killed many people. And he’s going to get a free card and we’re going to get her. He’s absolutely one of the worst in the world, and he’s going to be given his freedom because a potentially spoiled person goes into Russia loaded up with drugs. She knew you don’t go in there loaded up with drugs, and she admitted it. I assume she admitted it without too much force because it is what it is, and it certainly doesn’t seem like a very good trade, does it?”
Bout, dubbed the “Merchant of Death” because of his rapid rise to the top of the international arms trafficking ring, is a former Soviet military officer who worked for the KGB in Angola. Former Attorney General Eric Holder called Bout “one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers.” Bout has armed human rights abusers in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
