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Israeli top diplomat says discussed with Lavrov issue of 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

TEL AVIV, December 6. /TASS/. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Friday he raised the topic of possible pardoning of Naama Issachar, a US Israeli dual citizen, who was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison in Russia on drugs smuggling charges, at a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Rome.

"I met with Foreign Minister Lavrov in Rome and hailed the good relations between Israel and Russia. I raised the issue of Naama Issachar and expressed the hope that President [of Russian Vladimir] Putin will consider pardoning appeals. I also asked to increase the number of family visits for Naama," he wrote on his Twitter account.

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. Issachar, 25, was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on April 9 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. In mid-October, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent an official request to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking to pardon Issachar.

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Sergey Lavrov Israel

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