Trial of US basketball star Brittney Griner considers medicinal use of cannabis

Brittney Griner speaks to her lawyers standing in a cage at a courtroom prior to a hearing in Khimki, just outside Moscow, Russia (Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool/AP)

The drug trial of American basketball star Brittney Griner in a Russian court has focused on testimony that cannabis, while illegal in Russia, is regarded in other countries as having legitimate medicinal use.

Griner has acknowledged that she was carrying vape canisters containing cannabis oil when she was arrested in February at a Moscow airport, but she contends that she had no criminal intent and that the canisters ended up in her luggage inadvertently because of hasty packing.