Russia Rejects Jailed Israeli’s Appeal As Netanyahu Faces Vote

(Bloomberg) -- A Russian court rejected an appeal by an Israeli woman imprisoned in Russia on drug-smuggling charges after President Vladimir Putin snubbed repeated pleas to free her from Israel’s embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who’s facing his third election in a year.

The Moscow Regional Court on Thursday upheld the conviction of Naama Issachar, 26, who received a 7 1/2-year sentence in October for transporting a small quantity of hashish on a transit flight via Moscow. While Issachar can appeal her conviction through higher courts, she will now be transferred to a penal colony to begin her sentence, the Interfax news service reported.

Her mother last month personally appealed to Putin to pardon Issachar in a letter handed to him by Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. Putin until now hasn’t intervened to avoid bolstering Netanyahu 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.

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 will be held on March 2 after Netanyahu and his centrist rival Benny Gantz failed to form an administration.

The issue has caused tensions between Israel and Russia, which were further fueled by an incident on Wednesday in which about 40 passengers traveling from the Jewish State were detained on arrival in Moscow “for no apparent reason,” according to the Israeli embassy. Russia’s embassy in Israel responded by complaining that 5,771 Russian tourists have been refused entry to Israel in the first 11 months of the year.

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. Issachar’s case for a time became entangled with that of a Russian national, Alexei Burkov, whom Israel extradited to the U.S. last 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

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