Naama is home, but 628 Israelis remain incarcerated overseas

With Naama Issachar now safely home, Channel 12 notes that she wasn’t the only Israeli incarcerated in a foreign land. It reports there are 628 Israelis currently imprisoned overseas.

Of course, Naama’s case drew public sympathy because of the draconian 7.5-year prison sentence for possession of 9 grams of marijuana in stowed luggage during a layover in a Moscow airport. For many of the Israelis imprisoned abroad, including 168 in the United States, 21 in prisons in Berlin and 17 in Madrid, their punishments are presumably more fitting to their crimes.

The list provided by Channel 12:

– In all, 628 Israelis are incarcerated abroad.
– Of them, Russia is holding 66.
– The United States 168.
– Ukraine 41.
– Europe 54, of them 21 in Berlin and 17 in Madrid.
– Japan 11.
– India 7.
– South American countries 60.
– Turkey 17.
– Jordan 2.

The Israeli convicts are serving time for:
– Drug possession 153.
– Murder 35.
– Sexual assault and pedophilia 20.