Putin Pardons Israeli-American backpacker who was sentenced to prison

Israeli-American Naama Issachar, jailed for drug smuggling, attends her appeal hearing at the Moscow Regional Court on December 19, 2019. Image by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images

By Josefin Dolsten January 29, 2020

(JTA) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has pardoned Naama Issachar, an Israeli-American backpacker who was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for drug smuggling.

The Russian news agency Interfax News reported Wednesday that Putin had issued the pardon.

Issachar, 26, had been returning from India to Israel by way of Moscow in April last year when she was detained after authorities said they found 9 grams of marijuana in her bag.

She denied the drugs were hers, but in October Russia sentenced her to what many said was an excessive sentence of 7 1/2 years.

Reports said Russia wanted to use her as a bargaining chip to get Israel to release Alexei Burkov, a Russian hacker who was set to be extradited from the Jewish state to the United States. Israel ended up going through with Burkov’s extradition.

Putin met last week in Israel with Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin, who both pressed him to pardon Issachar. The Russian leader also met with Issachar’s mother, Yaffa, and told her “everything will be all right.”

Netanyahu is flying to Moscow on Wednesday to talk to Putin about President Donald Trump’s newly released Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, Bloomberg reported.

The post Putin pardons Israeli-American backpacker Naama Issachar, who was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in Russian prison appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Josefin Dolsten is a New York-based writer who has reported for the Forward, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Times of Israel and other Jewish publications. She currently works as an account director at Fenton Communications, supporting organizations that work to advance racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights and more. Dolsten earned her B.A. in government from Cornell University and her M.A. in comparative religion and Jewish studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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