Russia’s prison service said Thursday that a US-Israeli woman jailed for drug trafficking has been freed from prison after President Vladimir Putin pardoned her.
Her release followed a meeting in Moscow on Thursday between Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who flew in from Washington to pass on details of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
“Due to the presidential decree on pardoning, Naama Issachar has been freed from prison,” the prison service said in a statement.
Her original sentence was for seven and a half years.
She has been arrested last April when police found nine grams of cannabis in her bags during a stopover at a Moscow airport.
She was imprisoned in a penal colony in the Moscow region.
After initially refusing to appeal to Putin, on Sunday she signed a request to him for a pardon.
When travelling to Israel last week for commemorations for the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz 75 years ago, Putin appeared before the cameras with Issachar’s mother and Netanyahu.
It remains to be seen how much Issachar’s release and Netanyahu’s visit to Washington boost his re-election chances.
