![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
FREE NAAMA | The Jerusalem Post
Dec. 23rd, 2019 09:53 pm"Either way though, and no matter what it is that Putin wants, the world needs to know what the Russian president is engaging in blackmail and is holding a young woman hostage.
Russia is not Gaza and the Kremlin is not Hamas. Nevertheless, it seems Moscow is using Issachar as a pawn to advance some sort of distorted political agenda.
A Russian court last week rejected American-Israeli Naama Issachar’s appeal of her seven-year sentence on charges of smuggling drugs.
Issachar was arrested in April after nine grams of marijuana were found in her bag as she stopped in Moscow’s airport on her way back to Israel from a vacation in India. She told the court on Thursday at the time of her arrest she was forced to sign a document in Russian without understanding it and has since found herself behind bars without basic human rights. She also said the drugs were not hers and had somehow been planted in her bag.
We do not know what is true but what we do know is Russia has taken Issachar hostage. Her initial arrest might have been justified but a seven-year jail sentence is absurd and can only be interpreted as a diplomatic attack against the State of Israel.
There are a number of theories why Russia would do this. Originally, it was presumed, that Russia was holding on to Issachar to get Israel to release Alexei Burkov, a Russian hacker who had been arrested due to an extradition request by the United States. Burkov has since been extradited to America and is no longer in Israeli custody.
Another possibility is Russia wants to get back at Israel for detaining and deporting Russian visitors on a regular basis when they land at Ben-Gurion Airport.
Read More ›››
FREE NAAMA | The Jerusalem Post
Russia is not Gaza and the Kremlin is not Hamas. Nevertheless, it seems Moscow is using Issachar as a pawn to advance some sort of distorted political agenda. A Russian court last week rejected American-Israeli Naama Issachar’s appeal of her seven-year sentence on charges of smuggling drugs.
↱m.jpost.com