Brittney Griner has begun her trial on drug charges in Russia after being detained in the country for four months.
Wearing handcuffs and a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt, the WNBA star appeared in Khimki City Court near Moscow on July 1 for the first official hearing. There, a prosecutor laid out her charges of smuggling narcotic drugs, in the form of less than a gram of cannabis oil, into Russia, CNN reported, quoting a reporter for Russian state news agency TASS.
Brittney did not enter a plea. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison. The next hearing is now set for July 7.
As for how she is feeling? "She's worried, naturally," one of Brittney's attorneys Maria Blagovolina, one of Griner's attorneys, said when asked about her client's mood, per NBC News.
Brittney, who plays for the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury and for a Russian basketball team during the league's off-season, was arrested in February at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport for allegedly possessing vape cartridges containing cannabis oil.
Alexander Boikov, another one of Brittney's attorneys, told reporters at the trial's first hearing that the court questioned two prosecution witnesses, including an airport customs employee who searched the athlete before she was detained. However, according to NBC News, the person was questioned behind closed doors.
At a news conference that day, a Kremlin spokesman denied Brittney's arrest was "politically motivated" and maintained that the basketball player was "detained with prohibited drugs that contained narcotic substances," NBC News reported.
Brittney, who had previously appeared at pre-trial hearings, has received support from home since her arrest. The 31-year-old's wife, Cherelle Griner, who can only communicate with Brittney through letters and email, has lobbied for her release, while the U.S. State Department has been working to try to secure her freedom.
However, she has expressed frustration at the efforts to secure the athlete's release.
"I do have to unfortunately push people to make sure that the things they're telling me is also matching their actions and so it's been the hardest thing to balance because I can't let up. It's over 130 days and BG's still not back," Cherelle told CNN. "You don't have my trust at that point until I see actions that are in BG's best interest."
This week, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Cherelle. "Brittney Griner is wrongfully detained, unjustly detained and we have made that clear as an official determination of the US government," the National Security Adviser told reporters June 28. "Second, the Russian government should release her and allow her to be returned and reunited with her family and come home safe and sound."
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