An Israeli woman jailed in Russia on drug charges has submitted a petition to be pardoned by President Vladimir Putin.
State news agency Tass reported Sunday that Naama Issachar's lawyer said the request was filed following a statement by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov that she couldn't be pardoned without making a personal appeal.
The 26-year-old backpacker was arrested in April at a Moscow airport, where she was transferring en route from India to Israel. Russian authorities said more than nine grams of hashish were found in her luggage. She was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed to Putin to pardon Issachar.
CAPTION CORRECTION:CORRECTS MOTHER'S NAME: Yaffa Issachar, mother of Naama, who is imprisoned in Russia on drug possession charges, meets Russian President Vladimir Putin accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah in Jerusalem on January 23,2020 . Putin, will be a guest of honor Thursday at a ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum marking the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Red Army's liberation of the Nazi Auschwitz death camp. (Heidi Levine, Pool via AP)
While in Israel last week, Putin met Issachar's mother and told her “everything will be alright."
Israeli Naama Issachar gestures during an appeal hearings in a courtroom in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019. An Israeli backpacker serving prison time in Russia on a drug conviction is appealing her case and says she was wasn't provided a translator or lawyer after being detained at a Moscow airport. She was arrested in April in Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, where she was transferring flights en route from India to Israel. More than nine grams of hashish were found in her luggage. She was later sentenced to 7 12 years. (AP PhotoAlexander Zemlianichenko Jr.)