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Former
Israeli president awaits rape case sentence
Tuesday March 22, 2011 08:31:43 AM,
Agencies
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Jerusalem: Former Israeli President
Moshe Katsav will learn Tuesday whether he will go to jail on a rape
conviction in a case that has already made history in Israel.
The former head of state is the highest-ranking Israeli official
ever to be convicted of a crime. He faces up to 16 years in prison.
His conviction was seen as a victory for the Israeli legal system
and for women’s rights in a decades-long struggle to chip away at
the nation’s macho culture, which once permitted political and
military leaders great liberties.
At the same time, it left some Israelis equally saddened to see a
symbol of the state tarnished.
Katsav was convicted in December of two counts of raping an employee
when he was tourism minister in 1998. The court also convicted him
of sexual harassment against two other women who worked for him when
he was president, from 2000 to 2007.
The presidency is a mostly ceremonial position in Israel,
traditionally given to elder statesmen as a reward for a lifetime of
public service.
Details surfaced in 2006 when Katsav complained that a female
employee was trying to blackmail him. The woman went to police with
her side of the story, listing a series of alleged sexual assaults.
Other women later came forward with other complaints of sexual abuse
by Katsav.
Katsav has denied all allegations from the beginning, saying he was
the victim of a political witch hunt.
Public pressure forced him to resign in 2007, two weeks before the
end of his term, under a plea bargain that would have made him admit
to lesser charges of sexual misconduct.
Katsav later rejected the deal, vowing to clear his name in court.
He was replaced by elder statesman and Nobel peace laureate Shimon
Peres.
Legal expert Moshe Negbi said the maximum sentence in Israel for
rape is 16 years and that the court demands that at least a quarter,
or 4 years, be served.
Katsav’s rise to Israel’s top job was hailed as a success story at
the time due to his humble beginnings.
Katsav was born in Iran and immigrated to Israel as a child, growing
up in immigrant tent encampments and then in Kiryat Malachi, a
hardscrabble town in southern Israel.
Katsav was elected mayor of that town at the age of 24 — becoming
the youngest mayor in Israel’s history. He rose through the ranks of
the rightist Likud Party to hold a series of Cabinet posts before
parliament selected him to be president in 2000.
He has mostly retreated to his home since he was convicted.
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