Russia frees U.S.-Israeli backpacker after Putin pardon

Members of the Federal Penitentiary Service are seen at the gate of a penal colony, where Naama Issachar, a U.S.-Israeli woman jailed on drug charges, serves her sentence, in the settlement of Novoye Grishino in Moscow region, Russia on January 29. (REUTERS Photo)

MOSCOW, January 30 (Reuters): Russia freed a U.S.-Israeli woman on Thursday who had been jailed on drugs charges, after President Vladimir Putin granted her a pardon.

Naama Issachar's release came ahead of talks in Moscow on Thursday between Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who flew in from Washington to pass on details of a U.S. peace plan, which Israel supports and Palestinians reject.

Netanyahu thanked Putin at talks in Moscow for what he said was a "swift" decision to pardon Issachar. Netanyahu has said he plans to meet her later on Thursday.

The release of the New Jersey-born 26-year-old is seen as a boon for Netanyahu, who had publicly appealed Putin to free her.

The right-wing Israeli leader, under criminal corruption indictment, faces an election on March 2 and has campaigned on his ability to protect Israel's interests abroad.

Issachar was jailed for seven and a half years after being arrested last April when police found nine grams of cannabis in her bags during a stopover at a Moscow airport on her way from India to Israel.

Her family called her treatment disproportionate and the case opened an unusual public rift between Russia and Israel.

"It has been a long journey that I would not wish upon anyone," Yaffa Issachar, Naama's mother, was quoted as saying by the Jerusalem Post, having travelled to Moscow for her daughter's release. "Now, all I want is to hug my daughter Naama."