as part of a prisoner exchange between the us government and the kremlin. griner was arrested at moscow airport in february after cannabis oil was found in her luggage. she was sentenced to nine years in prison, and last month she was transferred to a penal colony. a russian arms dealer convicted of supplying weapons to terrorists has been released by washington in return. our correspondent barbara plett usher joins me from washington. it isa it is a pretty extraordinary trade. extraordinary kind of swap. it is extraordinary kind of swap. it is extraordinary extraordinary kind of swap. it is extraordinary on extraordinary kind of swap. it 3 extraordinary on several levels. one is that the us russian relations are very tense right now, because of the russia s war in ukraine so that was the backdrop against which these negotiations took place. also, brittney griner is an unusual hostage in the sense that she is a celebrity, so what is behind the scenes usually hostage diplomacy for t
and stays for others are shorter. matthew hill, bbc news. the biggest fraud trial in german history has begun, in a bomb proof courtroom inside a prison in munich. the boss of the disgraced payment company wirecard, markus braun is accused of involvement in the embezzlement of billions of dollars. wirecard collapsed spectacularly two years ago. joining me now is our damian mcguiness from berlin. the story of this fun reads like a political thriller, bell, the story of this fun reads like a politicalthriller, bell, but because it started doctor the story of this company, wirecard com like a political thriller. it was started in the is the big hope to prove to the world google could invent its own tech answer to facebook or blue blood complete with the big american global tech giants and do more thanjust make has but over the years it really took off
there, there was a lot of pressure on the administration to bring her home. and then as you said, the person for whom she was swapped, one of the most notorious arms dealers, for decades, he was very much i wanted man until the americans arrested him in a sting operation in thailand in 2008 and put him away for 25 years in prison. very high level release and the us was hoping to get two detained americans in exchange, brittney griner but also another prisoner, a former marine who had been convicted on espionage charges that the american say were manufactured. in the end, they were only able to get brittney griner so although we had the announcement from the white house alongside her wife which was a real achievement for the administration, mr biden was very quick to pivot to the second prisoner saying they