A years-long ordeal of an elderly woman came to an end on Thursday when President Shimon Peres pardoned a 71-year-old grandmother who was serving a six-year prison term for kidnapping her granddaughter. Dr. Isabelle Belfer, who expressed deep relief and gratitude to those who helped secure her freedom, quickly boarded a plane and on Saturday returned to Moscow.
The story began in 2007 when Belfer was convicted by a Tel Aviv court after her daughter Marina, divorced from her estranged husband Yaron Rotem, took their only child, Lilach, out of the country. Marina, who claimed that Rotem abused the child, took Lilach and fled first to the U.S. and then to Russia, angering Lilach’s father, who filed kidnapping charges against his ex-wife and her mother, Isabella.
Allegedly, Belfer accompanied her daughter when she took the child out of Israel.
When Belfer returned to Israel to care for her own 94-year-old mother in 2006, she was arrested by the authorities, stood trial, and was convicted on kidnapping charges.
The judge in the case, Dr. Oded Mudrik, was harsh in describing Belfer’s crime, stating in his decision: “In principle, I am of the opinion that the punishment of the defendant is an appropriate response to her ridicule of the law and playing with the decisions of the family court as if it were a game of hopscotch. The punishment reflects the concept of protection of basic values and human dignity. The difference between this and other crimes… is that the injuries inflicted from the matter in question can be reversed.”
Prominent rabbis in Russia, on the other hand, sharply criticized the judge’s decision, supporting Belfer’s efforts on behalf of her daughter, noting she had not kidnapped the child for any financial gain and was not a common criminal.
Lilach's father Rotem, meanwhile, has managed to secure a freeze on Belfer’s mother’s bank account and all her financial assets. The Voice of Russia news web site reports that he is also currently selling her Tel Aviv apartment.
As for his former mother-in-law, an appeal had been filed with the assistance of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the personal intervention of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, leading to the reduction of her prison sentence to three years . Finally, the ordeal of the elderly woman - the oldest prison inmate in Israel - came to an end when President Peres pardoned her late last week.