Brittney Griner’s Russian detention has been extended to May 19, according to Russian news agency TASS. The Mercury center has been in Russian detention since February when the Russian Federal Customs Service said it found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage at Sheremetyevo International Airport near Moscow.
“The court granted the petition of the investigation and extended the term of U.S. citizen Griner’s detention until May 19,” TASS quoted the court as saying.
Hashish oil is a more concentrated form of marijuana, and is commonly consumed in vape form. The “large-scale transportation of drugs,” according The New York Times, carries a hefty punishment if charges are handed down in Russia.
The crime carries a possible sentence of five to 10 years in prison, the customs service said according to ESPN. Griner has had very little contact with the outside world and the few times she’s been seen publicly were when Russian State TV released a photo of Griner and a video of customs going through her baggage surfaced.
Ekaterina Kalugina, a member of Public Monitoring Commission, a semi-official body with access to Russian prisons, told TASS that Griner’s only complaint was that the beds are too short for her. The Mercury have the seven-time All Star registered at 6’9”. Kalugina added that Griner is sharing a cell with two other women with no previous convictions.
Despite her February detainment, news of Griner being arrested didn’t become public until early March well after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and when sanctions were already underway against the country. It’s even been questioned if the charges against her are legitimate or if she was targeted for being a high profile American athlete. Daniel Fried, the former U.S. ambassador to Poland under President Bill Clinton, doesn’t think it’s beneath Russia to detain an American unjustly.
“I can’t say definitively she didn’t [do the crime], but the first thought I had when I read about [the arrest] is this sounds like [the Russians] taking an American hostage,” said the assistant secretary of state for Europe under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. “It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they would do that—plant drugs and grab her. The American embassy and the U.S. government has been aware of the possibility of the Russians using Americans in Moscow as bargaining chips.
“It would be just like the Russians to do this—pick somebody, make a case. Unless there is actual evidence [implicating Griner], which would frankly surprise me, I would regard this as a political case, and I feel badly for this person who is caught up in it.”
Griner, who plays for the Russian basketball team UMMC Ekaterinburg during the WNBA offseason, was on her way of the country when her bag was searched.
