Benjamin Netanyahu condemns seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence for Israeli in Russia

Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly condemned the jail sentence given to a US-Israeli woman in Russia after she was caught with a small amount of marijuana.

Naama Issachar, 26, was sentenced on Friday to seven and a half years for smuggling, after she was caught with nine grams of the drug in her luggage when she arrived in Russia for a connecting flight to India in April.

The amount she was carrying was legal for personal use in Israel. The New York Times reported possession of such an amount would normally mean no more than a month's detention in Russia.

On Friday, Mr Netanyahu's office issued a statement that said he been involved in the case for some weeks, raising it with Russian President Vladimir Putin when the pair met in Sochi on September 12.