Detained WNBA star Brittney Griner pleads guilty to drug charges in Russia

Detained WNBA star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty on Thursday to bringing hashish oil into Russia, telling a judge that she had done so «inadvertently» while asking the court for mercy.

The move is not expected to end her trial in Khimki, Russia, anytime soon. Even with a guilty plea in Russian criminal courts, the judge will continue to read the full case file into the record and it could still go on for weeks or months.

Griner, who was detained in February at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, told the court that she packed the vape cartridges accidentally and did not intend to break Russian law.

«I'd like to plead guilty, your honor. But there was no intent. I didn't want to break the law,» Griner told the judge, according to Reuters.

She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of large-scale transportation of drugs.

Sources said the guilty plea to charges of drug possession and smuggling was a strategy to help facilitate a prisoner swap that could bring Griner home, and it also was a recognition that there was no way she was going to be acquitted.

U.S. officials and Russia experts have described the trial on drug smuggling charges as «theater,» with a guilty verdict seen as a foregone conclusion.

Thursday was the second day of her trial on charges that she tried to bring vape cartridges containing hashish oil into Russia on Feb. 17, where she was detained by customs officials at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport.

There is no timetable, but the real resolution to Griner's case is expected to be a deal that brings one or more Russians currently in U.S. custody back to Russia in exchange for the release of Griner and possibly another American, Paul Whelan, who has been detained in Russia since December 2018.

Russia has