The visit to Israeli woman Naama Issachar serving a prison term in Russia for drug trafficking is not connected with a possible decision to pardon her, the trip was planned before, Russian human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd January, 2020) The visit to Israeli woman Naama Issachar serving a prison term in Russia for drug trafficking is not connected with a possible decision to pardon her, the trip was planned before, Russian human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said Thursday.
Earlier, the ombudswoman's press service said Moskalkova would visit Issachar Thursday.
"I'm visiting her not in connection with the pardon, I do not have such authority to apply for pardon myself... I have been planning my visit for a long time... [to check] the language regime, nutrition, detention conditions and medical services, and I am very glad that President [Vladimir Putin] met with [Naama's] mother," she told reporters.
Later on Thursday, the press service said that Moskalkova arrived in the correctional facility in Novoye Grishino village in the Moscow Region to visit Issachar. Following the meeting, the ombudswoman told reporters that Issachar did not complain about detention conditions and medical assistance.
Issachar, who has dual Israeli-US citizenship, was arrested in April 2019 during a layover in Moscow while she was on her way to Israel from India. She was found guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. The penalty has been harshly criticized in Israel as "disproportionate," since the amount of drugs found was allowed for personal use in Israel, though it is considered illegal in Russia.
Issachar's defense has said that it plans to file a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights and is working on a second appeal with a Moscow court after the first one was dismissed in mid-December.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Issachar's mother. He was accompanied to the meeting by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Following their meeting, the Russian leader said he would take into account Netanyahu's position on the case of the jailed Israeli woman when making a decision whether to grant Issachar a pardon or not.
