Yaffa Issachar, the mother of Naama Issachar, says she is waiting to hug her daughter.
“This is a moment I have waited for almost a year,” she says. “I went through a journey I would not wish on anyone, now I just want to hug my daughter Naama.”
She thanks Putin for pardoning her daughter and Netanyahu for his efforts to free her.
Israeli backpacker Naama Issachar’s mother Yaffa Issachar, left, and sister Liad Goldberg wait for Issachar’s appeal hearing in a courtroom in Moscow, Russia, December 19, 2019. (Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr./AP)
According to an Israeli official, the pardon was actually granted as a Russian favor to the US.
Naama Issachar, a dual US-Israeli citizen, was arrested in April by Russian authorities who found 9.5 grams of marijuana in her bag as she passed through Moscow’s airport en route from India to Israel.
She had become a cause célèbre in Israel over the last several months.
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