MOSCOW, June 15 (dpa/EP) –
WNBA star Brittney Griner will have to spend at least 18 more days in preventive detention after a Moscow court has decided to extend the sanction that weighs on the US team player.
The court has extended his pretrial detention until July 2, 18 days more than previously planned, the Russian news agency TASS reported on Tuesday, citing court sources. This is the third time that the 31-year-old player’s incarceration has been lengthened.
Brittney Griner has been in prison for nearly four months, after she was arrested at Moscow airport on February 17 on charges of drug possession. The Phoenix Mercury player had cartridges for vaping hashish oil found in her luggage and now she faces between five and ten years in prison.
Meanwhile, the United States assures that she has been unjustly detained, and confirms that the last contact she had with the player was in May. A spokesman for the State Department, Ned Price, explained that the Russian authorities have not yet communicated to the American country the increase in preventive detention.
“Brittney Griner shouldn’t be in detention, she shouldn’t have been in detention for a single day. This case is problematic from start to finish,” the spokesperson explained to the media. Price sees so many problems in the case that he has made it clear that Brittney Griner is “wrongfully detained.” “That is precisely why we are doing everything we can to try and get her released from Russian detention soon,” he said.