Arrested US basketball player Greiner can be exchanged under the scheme of Ukrainian sailors
U.S. Olympic basketball champion Brittney Griner, who was arrested in Russia in a drug smuggling case, could be exchanged under a scheme that sent 24 sailors detained in the Kerch Strait to Ukraine in 2019. This is reported by MK.RU with reference to Ivan Melnikov, Vice President of the Russian branch of the International Committee for the Protection of Human Rights.
“In our country, an agreement at the highest level and the will of the first person are quite enough to carry out any exchange, and even a verdict that has entered into legal force is not mandatory,” he said.
As the publication clarifies, the exchange scheme of the basketball player Greiner can be changed under the conditions of a special military operation: a similar mechanism was tested three years ago – and the process did not require a trial or a sentence. So, in 2019, Moscow and Kyiv carried out an exchange without any legal conventions according to the “35 for 35” formula: sailors and Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov were transferred in exchange for Russian journalist Kirill Vyshinsky and a military man from the Donetsk People’s Republic Vladimir Tsemakh.
“In the US, this issue is even easier. They have a suspect can be pardoned at any stage of the process. Therefore, it will be easy to exchange one of ours for Greiner, for example, for the already convicted Viktor Bout, if there is a desire, ”concluded the source of the newspaper.
On July 7, the Russian Foreign Ministry commented on the possibility of exchanging Greiner for Russian citizen Bout. The department said that these conversations are premature. The Russian has been imprisoned since March 2008 – he is considered involved in supporting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC) organization in Colombia and intending to sell weapons to it.
Brittney Greiner was arrested on March 5th. She was detained at Sheremetyevo Airport. The athlete, who arrived from New York, was found to have drugs in her hand luggage. In Russia, the athlete played for the Yekaterinburg UMMC.
Source: Lenta
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