Israeli being held in Ukrainian jail until family pays $200,000

"I am begging you, if you can, please help me to do the mitzvah (commandment) of pidyon shvuyim (returning captives) and bring Yitzchak home. For the sake of his life."

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A climber installs the Ukrainian national flag on a roof, marking the Day of the State Flag, on the eve of the Independence Day, in Kiev, Ukraine, August 23, 2016 (photo credit: GLEB GARANICH/REUTERS)
A climber installs the Ukrainian national flag on a roof, marking the Day of the State Flag, on the eve of the Independence Day, in Kiev, Ukraine, August 23, 2016
(photo credit: GLEB GARANICH/REUTERS)
An Israeli religious Jew is being held in a Ukrainian jail after he was involved in a traffic accident while visiting the country, and will not be freed unless the family pays $200,000, according to a crowdfunding campaign made by the imprisoned Israeli's wife.
"The roads are very dark there at night and there is no lighting," explained Miriam Amar, the wife of Yitzchak Natan Amar, the Israeli currently being held in a Ukrainian jail, in a video on the crowdfunding page. "My husband was driving...There was a car idling on the side of the road that suddenly merged onto the highway without signaling. I saw that my mother was bleeding from her lips. My husband was screaming for help. My baby was screaming. We just waited for help. Almost an hour no one came to help us. We were just waiting and bleeding."
Amar explained that three locals were killed in the accident.
"While they took me on a stretcher to an ambulance, the police took my husband," she said. "They didn't take him to be checked out, they immediately arrested him. It is a very difficult place, people are stabbed there every day."
"I am injured, physically and emotionally, from the crash and from everything that has happened," Amar explained. "I am alone. I don't know when my husband will come back and I am not able to talk to him. I am alone with my baby who asks for his father who loves him."
"The jail has ruled that they will release him for $200,000 - an amount of money that we could never afford," said Amar in the video. "We have one week to get the money to them or we will miss our chance."
"I am begging you, if you can, please help me to do the mitzvah (commandment) of pidyon shvuyim (returning captives) and bring Yitzchak home. For the sake of his life, to save him from the horrors of jail, and for our family," Amar pleaded. "It is the biggest mitzvah to bring him home. I desperately need your help. I can't bring my husband home alone."
The crowdfunding page is being host by the Chesed Fund and is labeled as a "verified campaign."