MOSCOW, Jan 30 — Russia today freed a US-Israeli woman who was jailed on drug charges after President Vladimir Putin granted her a pardon, the RIA news agency cited the Federal Prison Service as saying.
Naama Issachar's release came ahead of talks in Moscow today between Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who flew in from Washington to pass on details of US President Donald Trump's Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
Israel had called on Russia to release New Jersey-born Issachar and her family had called her sentence disproportionate.
She was jailed for seven and a half years after being arrested last April when police found nine grammes of cannabis in her bags during a stopover at a Moscow airport, en route from India to Israel.
Netanyahu welcomed Putin's move to pardon the 26-year-old and said he would meet her today. — Reuters
