The trial for WNBA star Brittney Griner resumed, with the head of the Russian basketball club she plays for testifying in support of her character, and what she has meant for the sport in the country, Sky News reports.
Griner pleaded guilty last week to drug charges against her. She did not herself testify, which was expected on the third day of the trial.
The star has been detained in Russia since February. The United States is under immense pressure to do more to free her.
There was hope that by pleading guilty, there would be an expedition by the court proceedings, helping along any negotiations over prisoner exchanges.
Brittney Griner was arrested in February at the Moscow airport Sheremetyevo Airport when a customs official said that they found vape canisters with cannabis oil within her luggage.
In the first hearing where she was allowed to speak, Griner said that she possessed the cannabis canisters, but that she had absolutely no criminal intent, and that the presence in luggage was merely due to hasty packing.
Now, she is facing up to a decade in prison.
Russia’s judicial system has a structure in which an admission of guilt does not automatically end the trial.
This week, on Thursday, the trial resumed. But most journalists were denied entry.
Griner plays for the Russian basketball league during the WNBA offseason, for a club called the UMMC Ekaterinburg.
The director of the UMMC said that the task on this week’s court hearing was to tell the court about Griner’s characteristics as an athlete, as well as a person, and to show how she plays a huge role in the success of the Ekaterinburg club, and in Russian basketball as a whole.
Club director Maxim Rybakov said that it was the first day the club heads had seen Griner and “thank God, she feels well, looks good.”
President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have said that they are doing all that they can in order to secure Griner’s release, as well as other U.S. citizens who have been “wrongly detained” by Russia.
Griner is one of the biggest, most prominent women athletes in America. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a star basketball player.
There has been a fear since she was arrested that her detention as due to Russia wanting political leverage, to deal with its ongoing war against Ukraine.
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