Vadim Klyuvgant on intentional protraction of Naama Issachar’s case

Lawyers of the Israeli Naama Issachar, sentenced to seven and a half years of colony for trafficking of a small amount of hashish have accused the court of protraction of the process, Partner of Pen & Paper Attorneys at Law Vadim Klyuvgant told MBKh media.

Judge of Khimkinsky City Court Pavel Cherednichenko is impeding completion and submission of a grounded appeal of the sentence of October 11. Over a month later neither the convicted nor her lawyers, regardless of their written and spoken requests, have been given the chance to familiarize themselves with the files in the case. The defence has neither been provided with a copy of the hearing protocol. All that prevents the lawyers from supplementing their contentions provided in a brief appeal and completing its preparation.

The judge told the defence that he will allow familiarization with the judicial files only in the presence of the convicted and her interpreter. Familiarization of the lawyer only is believed to ‘protract the process’. The defence has already appealed these actions of the judge.

‘It’s impossible to find any reasonable explanation to these actions of the judge. It’s clear that they won’t be able to conceal the files in the case from the defence forever, sooner or later we will do our job,’ Mr. Klyuvgant claimed.

He noted that considering that the young woman is detained in a foreign country, these bureaucratic protractions look atrocious. ‘Not to mention the fact that the situation undermines international reputation of our country, which considers itself a state of law,’ the lawyer concluded.

On October 11 Khimkinsky City Court sentenced Naama Issachar to seven and a half years of colony, pronouncing her guilty of drug smuggling and possession. Issachar was detained at Sheremetyevo airport when she was in transit from Delhi to Tel Aviv via Moscow. 9.6 grams of hashish were found in the girl's baggage, to which she didn't even have access in Moscow.