Rape Case Expected Against Israeli President: Critics Demand He Quit Ceremonial Post
By Joel Greenberg, Chicago Tribune
Jan. 24–JERUSALEM — Israel’s attorney general notified President Moshe Katsav on Tuesday that he intends to indict him on charges of rape and other sexual offenses, the Justice Ministry said, triggering demands that the ceremonial head of state resign.
A final decision on an indictment will be made after a hearing in which Katsav will be given a chance to present his case, the ministry said. If indicted, Katsav would be the first serving Israeli president to be charged with a crime.
The case is the most serious of several scandals involving senior political figures that have deepened public disenchantment with the Israeli leadership. Last week an investigation was ordered to determine whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert exercised improper influence in the privatization sale of a major bank in 2005.
Katsav was expected to announce his next moves at a news conference Wednesday. His lawyers have suggested that he could resign if indicted.
“The attorney general, with the agreement of the state attorney, came to the conclusion that there is sufficient prima facie evidence to indict the president,” a Justice Ministry statement said.
Katsav, 61, has denied the accusations, stemming from complaints by four women who worked for him during his term as president and before that when he was a Cabinet minister.
The Justice Ministry said evidence had been collected to support an indictment against Katsav on charges of rape, sexual relations involving the abuse of power, indecent acts, sexual harassment, obstruction of justice, fraud and breach of trust.
The allegations of sexual misconduct first emerged last summer after Katsav complained to Atty. Gen. Menachem Mazuz that a former employee was trying to blackmail him. The woman accused Katsav of forcing her to have sex in his office. Other women later came forward with similar accusations, broadening a police investigation that ended with a recommendation to press charges.
Kineret Barashi, a lawyer for one of the women who complained against Katsav, welcomed the impending indictment, saying it was gratifying “to know that the justice system does its job and doesn’t hold back, even when the president is involved.”
David Libai, one of Katsav’s lawyers, said he thinks Mazuz will change his mind after being presented with further evidence and arguments on behalf of Katsav.
“The president is convinced that it will yet become clear to everyone that he is the victim of false accusations and an attempt to remove him from office, and he will fight to prove his innocence,” Libai said.
The president enjoys immunity while in office and could only be tried after he resigns or at the end of his seven-year term this year.
Katsav had long enjoyed a reputation of bland integrity, but after the planned indictment was announced Tuesday, there were calls for his resignation across the political spectrum.
“The president must resign immediately,” Limor Livnat, a legislator from the opposition Likud Party, to which Katsav formerly belonged, told Army Radio. “There is no room for maneuvers.”
Colette Avital, a lawmaker from the Labor Party, said, “If there is still a shred of respect left for the institution of the presidency, the president himself has to draw the conclusions and resign.”
Katsav’s predecessor, Ezer Weizman, resigned in 2000, just before the end of his term, after the attorney general ruled that he had improperly accepted more than $300,000 in unreported cash from two businessmen. Weizman never was indicted.
The Katsav scandal is not the only one in Israel involving sexual misconduct allegations. Former Justice Minister Haim Ramon, who was forced to step down, is on trial after a female soldier accused him of forcibly kissing her. A verdict is expected at the end of the month.
jogreenberg@tribune.com
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Copyright (c) 2007, Chicago Tribune
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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