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Naama Issachar secretly moved to new prison, denied warm clothes

A young Israeli-American woman jailed in Russia has been secretly moved to a new prison, Israeli media outlets reported on Tuesday.

By Benjamin Kerstein, The Algemeiner

Naama Issachar, 26, was originally arrested at a Moscow airport in April after being found in possession of a small amount of cannabis during a stopover as she traveled home to Israel following a trip to India.

She was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for drug smuggling, a charge she denies, and reports on Tuesday indicate she was secretly moved to a new prison.

It is widely believed that political motives lie behind the heavy sentence.

According to Israeli news site Mako, the Israeli consulate finally located Issachar on Monday after she was quietly moved from a Moscow jail to another prison far from the capital without her lawyers or family being informed.

The consulate reportedly went to considerable lengths to ascertain Issachar’s location. Her lawyer visited her at the new facility and discovered that Issachar was being held in sub-standard conditions with no warm clothes.

Books sent to Issachar by her family were also confiscated.