Jailed Israeli’s Mother Looks to Putin as Netanyahu Stumbles

(Bloomberg) -- The mother of an Israeli woman imprisoned in Russia on drug-smuggling charges has asked President Vladimir Putin to pardon her after he snubbed repeated pleas from Israel’s embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu..Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, handed Putin a letter from Naama Issachar’s mother, Yaffa, asking for clemency at a Kremlin meeting last week. A copy of the request signed Nov. 18 seen by Bloomberg asks Putin “with all the pain of a mother’s heart to pardon my daughter and return her to her family.”.Naama Issachar, 26, was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in a Russian prison last month for transporting a small quantity of hashish on a transit flight via Moscow. The Moscow City Court will hear her appeal against the conviction on Dec. 12, according to its website..The plight of the U.S.-born Israeli army veteran has become a cause célèbre in Israel, where Netanyahu is facing the greatest threat of his 13-year rule as he battles bribery and fraud charges that could see him ejected from office and jailed. Elections may be held for the third time in less than a year in early 2020 if no lawmaker presents Israel’s president with a coalition by Dec. 11..Despite frequent contacts over many years, Putin sent Netanyahu away empty-handed in September when he flew to the Kremlin leader’s Black Sea residence a few days before the last polls..Amid tensions over Israel’s tough policy on Iran and Syria, Putin decided he didn’t want to bolster the Israeli leader at a time of electoral uncertainty in Israel, according to two people with knowledge of internal Kremlin discussions. The Russian president will personally decide Naama’s fate once a new government is in place in Israel, they said..Putin is scheduled to be Israel’s guest of honor at a ceremony in Jerusalem on Jan. 27 marking the 75th anniversary of the Red Army’s liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the plea for a pardon during a conference call with reporters on Monday. Earlier he’d said that Putin is considering Israeli requests for clemency..Issachar’s case for a time became entangled with that of a Russian national, Alexei Burkov, whom Israel extradited to the U.S. earlier this month on charges including hacking and credit card fraud. Russia had offered to swap the two, according to Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident and Israeli politician..--With assistance from Ilya Arkhipov..To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net;Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net.To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory L. White at gwhite64@bloomberg.net, Tony Halpin.©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Jailed Israeli’s Mother Looks to Putin as Netanyahu Stumbles

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