Naama Issachar, the American-Israeli woman jailed in Russia on drug charges, has formally requested a pardon, her attorneys said Sunday.
The lawyers said in a statement that her application was submitted with her signature after Russian President Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said last week that a pardon will be considered only if Issachar submits the request herself.
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Tatiana Moskalkova Hight Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia with Naama Issachar held in jail in Russia
(Photo: Screenshot)
"A motion has been already submitted by her in writing in the prescribed manner through the administration of the detention center in which she is located,” her lawyers said, expressing the hope that the pardon request will be answered quickly.
During his visit to Israel last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Issachar's mother and assured her "everything will be alright" - hinting that her daughter would soon be released.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Yaffa, mother of Israeli jailed in Russia on drug charges
(Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)
Yaffa Issachar traveled to Moscow early Sunday, saying she hopes to return home with her daughter.
"Naama was recently that told she would be moved to another prison but that had not happened so far, I hope that is a good sign," Yaffa Issachar told reporters at Ben-Gurion Airport before her departure.
President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had both already sent a request for Issachar to be pardoned, but the High Commissioner for Human rights, who visited Issachar in her prison cell Thursday told the jailed Israeli that according to Russian law, she would have to sign any request for a pardon before it could be considered.
Last month an appeal made by Issachar was rejected despite her claim that she was found guilty of drug trafficking after she was made to sign documents in Russian which she did not understand.
Naama Issachar was arrested in April while in transit in a Moscow airport, en route from India to Israel, and accused of carrying 9 grams of cannabis, her family said. Russian authorities charged her with drug smuggling.