American basketball star Brittney Griner appeared in a Moscow-area court for trial today, after being arrested in February on cannabis possession charges at an airport while traveling to play for a Russian team, reports the Associated Press. Griner, who was caught at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport with vape canisters with cannabis oil, could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of large-scale transportation of drugs.
Griner’s detention was also recently extended for another six months, to December 20, 2022, while the State Department has reclassified her as wrongfully detained and shifted oversight of her case to its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs. Russian news media have repeatedly raised speculation that she could be swapped for Russian arms trader Viktor Bout, nicknamed “the Merchant of Death,” who is serving a 25-year sentence on conviction of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and providing aid to a terrorist organization. Fewer than 1 percent of defendants in Russian criminal cases are acquitted, and unlike in the U.S., acquittals can be overturned.