Overview
- Abducted in Baghdad in March 2023, the dual Israeli-Russian Princeton scholar says she was held for roughly two and a half years by the Iran‑aligned militia Kataib Hezbollah.
- She describes being beaten, sexually assaulted, electrocuted, and hung from the ceiling, and says she gave coerced confessions after refusing to admit to spying.
- In a 2023 Iraqi TV video, she says she embedded coded phrases to signal abuse, including references meant to indicate electrocution and torture.
- Post‑release medical exams in Israel found nerve damage and other injuries, and she is undergoing long‑term physical and psychological rehabilitation.
- Her September release involved a transfer to an Iraqi official, care from female doctors, passage via the US Embassy and Cyprus to Israel, while accounts of who brokered it differ, with mentions of US officials including Adam Boehler and businessman Mark Savaya, Iraqi authorities’ claims of credit, and Kataib Hezbollah denying the abduction but citing her forced ‘confessions’.