An Israeli woman jailed in Russia on drug charges cannot be pardoned by President Vladimir Putin until she herself petitions for it, a Kremlin spokesman said Friday.
Naama Issachar, 26, was arrested in April at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where she was transferring flights on her way from India to Israel.
Russian authorities said more than nine grams of hashish were found in her luggage.
She was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison, and a higher court in Moscow upheld the verdict and sentence last month.
Israeli leaders deemed the sentence excessive, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed to Putin to pardon Issachar.
While in Israel for a Holocaust forum, Putin met Thursday with Issachar's mother and told her "everything will be all right."
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