US basketball star Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia extended until May

Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia for the possession of vape cartridges containing hashish oil has been extended until 19 May, according to the Russian state news agency, TASS.

TASS reported that a court in the Moscow region ruled the US basketball star should be detained for at least two more months.

“The court granted the petition of the investigation and extended the term of US citizen Griner’s detention until 19 May,” TASS quoted the court as saying.

Ekaterina Kalugina, a member of Public Monitoring Commission, a semi-official body with access to Russian prisons, told TASS that Griner was sharing a cell with two other women with no previous convictions. Kalugina added that Griner’s only issue was that the prison beds were too short for her 6ft 9in frame.

Without identifying Griner, who has won two Olympic golds with Team USA, the Russian Customs Service said earlier this month that a player had been detained in February after arriving at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on a flight from New York.

The 31-year-old WNBA star faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of bringing drugs into Russia. Griner’s arrest comes as the US places sanctions on Russia after Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to invade Ukraine last month.

“If we want her out of jail, Russia is going to have some terms,” said Evelyn Farkas, who served as the US deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia and Ukraine from 2012 to 2015. “It could be a prisoner swap. They also could use it as an implicit threat or blackmail to get us to do something or not do something. Either way, they find it useful.”

A former Pentagon official told Yahoo Sports she feared Griner could become a “high-profile hostage”.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken,