Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin trade prisoner for church

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday freed an Israeli-US woman jailed for drug trafficking.

Naama Issachar in a Moscow court last month. Picture: AFP

A US-Israeli woman jailed in Russia for drug trafficking was freed from prison on Thursday after being pardoned by President Vladimir Putin on the eve of a visit to Moscow by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr Netanyahu, who had pushed hard for her release in his campaign for re-election on March 2, was to brief Mr Putin on President Donald Trump’s Middle East plan. “I thank my friend President Putin for having pardoned Naama Issachar,” he said before leaving Washington.

Ms Issachar, 26, was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport last April as she travelled from India to Israel and was sentenced in October to 7½ years in prison. Russian authorities said they found 9g of cannabis in her checked luggage.

“Guided by the principles of humanity, I pardon Naama Issachar,” Mr Putin said in the decree.

The Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported she would ­return to Israel in Mr Netanyahu’s plane.

“I am moved, of course. I’m thinking about Naama,” her mother, Yaffa, said.

In December, Ms Issachar lost an appeal against her sentence, which Mr Netanyahu had ­described as disproportionate.

Speaking in Jerusalem last week, Mr Putin told Ms Issachar’s mother Yaffa that “everything will be fine”. Ms Issachar on Sunday signed a request to Mr Putin for a pardon.

It was understood she was ­released in exchange for the transfer of the Alexander Courtyard to the Russian Orthodox Church. The courtyard is disputed property in Jerusalem’s Old City, near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and was built on land bought by Tsar Alexander III in 1859. Russia has been rowing over its ownership since the 1917 ­Revolution. The courtyard complex houses a Russian Orthodox shrine and chapel. Russian state media reported last week that ­Israel had begun the process of handing over the property. Russia has lodged multiple requests for ownership in the past decade.

Agencies