WNBA star Brittney Griner, in a handwritten letter to President Joe Biden, said she fears being detained in Russia indefinitely and pleaded with the president not to forget about her and other American detainees.
Griner, 31, was arrested on February 17 at a Moscow airport, a week before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Russian authorities claimed that she had cannabis oil in her luggage and charged her with smuggling significant quantities of a narcotic substance, a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The athlete went on trial in a court near Moscow on Friday on drug smuggling charges.