Brittney Griner didn’t testify on the third day of her drug possession trial in Russia but character witnesses testified in her defense.
Player Evgenia Belyakova said she testified that “Brittney has always been a very good teammate, so my role here is just to be with her, to support her.”
U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have said they were doing all they could to win her release, as well as that of other Americans the U.S. considers “wrongly detained” by Russia, including former Marine Paul Whelan. Russian media have speculated that Griner could be swapped for Russian arms trader Viktor Bout, nicknamed “the Merchant of Death,” who is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. after being convicted of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and providing aid to a terrorist organization.
The State Department’s designation of Griner as wrongfully detained moves her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, effectively the government’s chief hostage negotiator. The classification has irritated Russia.
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