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With two Olympic gold medalists WNBA Star Brittney Griner She will appear in court on Friday, more than four months after she was arrested in Russia for bringing an arc cartridge containing cannabis-derived oil through Moscow Airport.
US officials fear that the American basketball icon will be subject to a “fake trial.”
Greener appeared in court for the second time on Monday since detention began in February. Her trial date has been announced Later this week.
The next day, Congressman Colin Allred of Texas issued a statement accusing her of “wrong” detention and that Russian authorities had created an image of a fair trial.
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“Brittney Griner has been torted for four months and Russia is now engaged in theater by putting her in a fake trial to falsely pretend she is something other than a political prisoner. “We are doing it,” Allred said in a press release. ..
Greener may face Up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Judges may be affected by “administrative agencies, military and other security forces” in “attention or politically sensitive cases” according to the report “Russia 2021 Human Rights Report” from the Ministry of State. ..
The same report also found that the results of several trials “looked as prescribed” and that in 2020 only 0.34% of the defendants were acquitted. Even if Grinner is acquitted, the ruling could be overturned under Russian law.
The jury trial had a high acquittal rate (23% in 2019). However, these cases were rare, and the jury’s acquittal was “sometimes overturned by a judge in the Court of Appeals.” Under Russian law, drug smuggling cases were subject to jury trials, but it was not immediately clear if this was the case with Grinner.
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William Pomeranz, deputy director of the Kennan Institute and an expert in Russian law, told The New York Times this week that the accused are likely to be guilty.
“There is prejudice, mainly because the Russian judicial system says that defendants should not actually be tried unless they are convicted,” Pomeranz explained. “There is no real idea or expectation that the defendant may be innocent. There is no real presumption of innocence.”
Thomas Firestone, a former resident legal adviser to the US Embassy in Moscow, reiterated his feelings the night before Grinner’s trial.
“It’s usually not a question of what the verdict will be, it’s a question of what the verdict will be,” he told The Washington Post.
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Greener was arrested at Sheremetyevo International Airport on February 17 after being accused of bringing Ark. Cartridge containing cannabis-derived oil Through security. Her arrest took place a week before Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, but news of her detention did not spread until March.
Ryan Gaydos of Fox News contributed to this report.