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Israeli president says asked Putin to pardon Israeli woman convicted in Russia

On October 11, the Khimki City Court in the Moscow region sentenced Naama Issachar to 7.5 years in a standard regime penal colony on charges of drug possession and smuggling

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin

© REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou

TEL AVIV, October 13. /TASS/. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said on Sunday he had turned to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, asking him to pardon Naama Issachar, a US Israeli dual citizen, who was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison in Russia on drugs smuggling charges.

"Today (on October 13), I appealed to President [Vladimir] Putin of Russia, as a friend of the Jewish People and of the State of Israel, regarding Naama Issachar. Although Naama has made a grave mistake and admitted it, such a long sentence could have a terrible impact on her life," he wrote on his Twitter account.

"Because of the particular and individual circumstances of Naama Issachar’s case, I am appealed to the president's mercy and compassion with a request for his personal intervention to grant her an extraordinary pardon," he wrote and posted the text of his letter to the Russian president.

On October 11, the Khimki City Court in the Moscow region sentenced Issachar to 7.5 years in a standard regime penal colony on charges of drug possession and smuggling. Isaachar, 25, was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport when she was in the airport’s transit zone before boarding a connecting flight to Tel Aviv after arriving from New Delhi. The airport’s security guards found 9.6 grams of cannabis in her luggage. Issachar admitted her guilt of possessing the drug but denied smuggling charges.

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