The American basketball player Brittney Griner, in pre-trial detention since February in Russia for drug smuggling, will be tried as of July 1, the courts reported today.
The first court hearing will start at noon on Friday, according to a spokesman for the Khimki Court, in the Moscow region, to local media.
In addition, the court extended for six months, until 20 December, the precautionary measure against the double Olympic champion.
Recently, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, denied that the imprisoned basketball player is a hostage of the Russian judicial system.
“We cannot call her a hostage . She broke Russian law. Now they are criminally persecuting her,” Peskov said in an interview with an American channel.
He recalled that Griner was arrested for “attempting to introduce prohibited substances into the country.”
“She is being prosecuted under Russian law. Not only in Russia there are such severe laws in this field. There are many countries where drugs cannot be brought. That is prosecuted by law. And we can’t do anything,” he added.
The basketball player’s family has turned to the US president, Joe Biden, to obtain Griner’s release, while both the WNBA and the NBA They have also turned to demanding his release.
At the time, Russian media reported that Russia and the United States were negotiating the exchange of Griner for the Russian arms dealer Víktor But, known as the “merchant of death” and serving a sentence in a US prison.
Griner, a player for UGMK Yekaterinburg, was detained on February 17 at Sheremetvo airport in Moscow, as customs officials found in her suitcases cannabis oil.
Next, the basketball player, who maintains her innocence, was arrested for drug smuggling, an arrest that Washington considers unjustified.
The center, who has been a member of the Russian team since 2015, can be sentenced gives up to 10 years in prison, since in Russia it is prohibited by law to enter the country with cannabis.