Israeli jailed in Russia for cannabis to appeal, says mother

An Israeli-American was recently sentenced to seven and a half years in jail for smuggling cannabis, on Friday. Her mother reportedly said that she found her daughter, Naama Issachar, exhausted, fed up and extremely confused soon after the judgement was done. 

Forcibly brought to the Russian soil

According to reports, Naama was caught by the authorities with approximately nine grams of cannabis at the Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport while transiting from India to Israel in April. Naama informed that she had no intentions of smuggling drugs and had no clue how it got into her bag. She also added that she had been brought to the Russian soil from the transit area, without her consent.  

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In a recent interview with an Israeli public radio, Yaffa Issachar explained the terrible situation her daughter is in. Yaffa also added that her daughter is in a state of confusion as to why she has been transferred to Russia, and why did this happen to her. Moscow reportedly seeks to trade her for a Russian jailed in Israel while awaiting extradition to the United States for alleged cyber-crimes and credit card fraud. 

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Connections with Aleksey Burkov

Russian and Israeli media channels have reported that Moscow is seeking a swap to stop the US obtaining custody of Aleksey Burkov, detained in Israel since 2015. Yaffa Issachar informed that her 26-year-old daughter was furious to see her mother being interrogated and was extremely anxious when she told her what was being reported about her in the media.  

Yaffa also informed about a strange "threatening" message that she recently received from an unknown person, claiming to be a friend of Burkov. She further informed that the man said to join his army and get Burkov out of jail. "I didn't answer him," she added. 

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Yaffa explained that she was extremely tensed, figuring out What had Naama and nine grammes got to do with a hacker in jail in Israel. On the day of the trial, but before the verdict was announced she said, the friend contacted her again. 

Naama’s detention period was increased by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of the verdict and said the sentence requested by prosecutors was disproportionate. 

On Friday, Netanyahu's office seemed to acknowledge the prisoner exchange request, but cited an Israeli supreme court ruling upholding Burkov's extradition to the United States. On Sunday Israeli president Reuven Rivlin added his own appeal to Putin, asking that he pardon Naama. 

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