Israeli woman faces 8 year sentence in Russian prison

Issachar holds dual U.S.-Israel citizenship, and her family has been continually asking the U.S. and Israeli governments to intervene.

By World Israel News Staff

A young Israeli woman, who has been charged by Russian authorities for smuggling marijuana, is facing eight years of prison time if convicted, according to the Russian news website ISRAland.

According to the report, Naama Issachar was in a Russian court on Wednesday for a hearing, during which the prosecution recommended a sentence of eight years of jail time for the young Israeli.

In April, Issachar, 25, was heading back to Tel Aviv  after a three month vacation in India. She was arrested before her connecting flight in Moscow for possession of drugs after Russian authorities discovered 9.2 ounces of marijuana in her luggage, the Forum Daily reported at the time of the incident.

Despite her denial, Issachar was taken from the airport to a detention center in Moscow.  She was than charged with drug possession which often entails a one-month period of detention, a fine and a ban on entering the country. However, shortly afterwards, the public prosecutor changed the charge from drug possession to drug smuggling, the report said.

The charge of drug smuggling in Russia can carry a penalty of 10 years in jail.

Meanwhile, Issachar has been sitting in jail for six months. Her trial has been postponed six times and she has been transferred to three different detention centers since her arrest.

According to website Heavy, her mother Yaffa Issachar “has only been allowed to see her daughter four times and speak with her on the phone twice in four-and-a-half months.”

Issachar holds dual U.S.-Israel citizenship, and her family has been continually asking the U.S. and Israeli governments to intervene.

So far their pleas has have fallen on deaf ears.

“My message is to both the Israeli and American governments, is to please, please help us. Please help us bring my sister home because this is beyond our control, it is beyond our lawyer’s control, it is beyond us as a family, and we need more help,” Issachar’s sister pleaded in an interview with i24NEWS.

A petition has been created for Issachar on the Care2 petition website demanding her release.

“We demand that Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald J. Trump along with their respective governments immediately negotiate with the Russian government Issachar’s release from Russian imprisonment before this becomes an issue of 2 nations ignoring the anti-Semitic treatment of one of their citizens,” the petition says.