Brittney Griner trial date set in Russian system with 1% acquittal rate

More than four months after she was arrested at a Moscow airport for cannabis possession, a Russian court has set the start date of the criminal trial of US basketball star Brittney Griner for 1 July.

The Phoenix Mercury star was also ordered to remain in custody for the duration of her criminal trial. She could spend 10 years in prison if convicted on charges of large-scale transportation of drugs. Fewer than 1% of defendants in Russian criminal cases are acquitted, and unlike in the US, acquittals can be overturned.

On Monday, the court in the Moscow suburb of Khimki extended Griner’s detention for another six months after she appeared for a preliminary hearing held behind closed doors. Photos obtained by the AP showed her appearing in handcuffs. Griner had previously been ordered to remain in pretrial detention until 2 July.

Griner’s detention and trial come at an extraordinarily low point in Moscow-Washington relations. She was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport less than a week before Russia sent troops into Ukraine, which aggravated already-high tensions.

Amid the tensions, Griner’s supporters had taken a low profile in hopes of a quiet resolution, until May, when the State Department reclassified her as wrongfully detained and shifted oversight of her case to its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs effectively the US government’s chief negotiator.

That move has drawn additional attention to Griner’s case, with supporters encouraging a prisoner swap similar to the one in April that brought home Marine veteran Trevor Reed in exchange for a Russian pilot convicted of drug trafficking conspiracy.

Russian news media have repeatedly raised speculation that she could be swapped for Russian arms trader