Brittney Griner, American basketball star detained in Moscow on drug smuggling charges, will be detained for at least two more months, Russian media reported on Thursday.
“The court accepted the request to investigate and extend the detention period of US citizen Griner until May 19,” a Russian court spokesman told. Kremlin-controlled press service TASS.
The Outlet Mash also reported and shared a video on Telegram shows Griner, 31, walking down a hallway with two guards.
A representative of the US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Griner’s agents declined to comment.
The arrest of the WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist was first reported on March 5, but Representative Colin Allred of Texas, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said She was arrested on February 17.
She was arrested after customs officials allegedly found a box of hashish oil in her luggage at an airport outside Moscow. She could face up to 10 years in prison.
Griner was a member of the Phoenix Mercury but played off-season for Russia’s UMMC Ekaterinburg team.
TASS quoted Ekaterina Kalugina of Moscow’s Public Supervision Commission, a group that observes prison conditions, as saying she had met Griner.
According to Kalugina, the US consul had not met Griner; Allred has previously said that she was not allowed consular access.
Kalugina said Griner was calm and had read books while in custody, but struggled with the size of the bed because she was nearly 7 feet tall.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said he was limited in what he could say publicly about Griner’s case due to privacy considerations, but that US officials would provide “any assistance possible” to any person. America is detained abroad.
Griner’s wife, Cherelle, was privacy request as the family worked to bring her home.
It is believed that Griner officials and family are strategically silent to avoid making her a high-profile prisoner the Russians will want to keep as a political pawn as the West punishes the country. Invasion of Ukraine.
Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter who has imprisoned in Iran in 18 months, told CNN he suspects that Griner, like him, is being accused of concealment.
“It was the most daring hostage-taking in a state imaginable,” Rezaian said.
