Liad Gold, the older sister of Naama Issachar, who’s been sitting in a Russian jail for eight months and has been sentenced to a 7.5 year prison for a minor drug charge, visited her sister for the first time in six months on Sunday.

Following her visit, Liad, a 32-year-old production assistant who lives in Los Angeles, wrote on Facebook that Naama is “feeling extremely hopeless and this past week has brought her terrible despair. She feels completely in the dark and scared from the lack of knowledge [about her future]…It was truly the first time I didn’t see an ounce of optimism in her. She cried a lot.”

“This was only the second time that I saw my sister in recent months. Despite the fact that I was already there, it’s incomprehensible to sit with my mother in the visitors’ booth in the prison with a thick glass separating us from Naama.”

Prior to her visit, Liad was interviewed by Ynet and broke down in tears as she spoke about her sister. “The Israeli government is not doing enough,” she said. “They need to wake up more and do more. She’s sitting in a small cell for eight months. It’s all political. She didn’t do anything. It’s illogical that a 26-year-old needs to sit in jail for issues completely unconnected to her.”

On Monday, Naama’s mother, Yaffa Issachar, met with the Rishon L’Tzion, Harav Yitzchak Yosef, who is currently on a visit to Moscow, an Arutz Sheva report said on Tuesday. Rav Yosef gave a bracha to Naama, expressing hope that she would be able to return to Israel in the near future. The Chief Rabbi of Russia, Rav Berel Lazar, participated in the meeting as well.

“The bracha of the Chief Rabbi moved me greatly and I thank him for it,” Yaffa said. “I sincerely hope that all Jews will join in his tefilah and that Naama will be freed by the court this Thursday and will be able to light the first candle of Chanukah in Israel.”

Previously, YWN reported that a Russian court has forbidden Yaffa Issachar from speaking Hebrew with her daughter Naama, who is imprisoned in a Russian jail. Naama was sentenced to 7.5 years of jail for possession of 9.5 grams of cannabis while awaiting a connecting flight in Moscow to Israel from India in April.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)