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Ex-Israeli president jailed for sex crimes
Source: Agencies |
November 11, 2011, Friday
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ISRAEL'S Supreme Court yesterday ordered former President Moshe Katsav to spend seven years in prison after rejecting the politician's appeal against a rape conviction and other sex crimes.
The unanimous decision of the three-judge panel capped a long and sordid chapter in Israeli politics that captured the country's attention for more than five years and ended with Katsav becoming the highest-ranking Israeli official ever sentenced to prison.
The ruling was seen as a triumph for women's rights - and specifically, rape victims' rights - and for a legal system willing to take on one of the country's most influential figures.
Katsav, who has proclaimed his innocence throughout the affair, sat stone-faced throughout the ruling. He left the court grim-faced.
Katsav, 65, was convicted last December of raping a former employee when he was a Cabinet minister and of sexually harassing two other women during his term as president from 2000 to 2007. He received a seven-year prison sentence in March, but was allowed to stay out of jail pending appeal.
Reading their opinions, the judges said Katsav's testimony had not been credible and accused him of exploiting his status as a high public official.
The former president "fell from the loftiest heights to the deepest depths," Judge Salim Joubran told the court. "Such a senior official should be a role model to his subordinates. Every woman has a right to her own body, a right to dignity, a right to freedom."
Katsav's attorney, Avigdor Feldman, said he "did not agree" with the outcome of the appeal and faulted the judges for believing the rape victim despite holes in her testimony.
But prosecutor Naomi Granot said: "This ruling confirms that in the state of Israel all are equal before the law."
Katsav maintains he is the victim of a political witch-hunt, but judges in March accused him of lying.
The unanimous decision of the three-judge panel capped a long and sordid chapter in Israeli politics that captured the country's attention for more than five years and ended with Katsav becoming the highest-ranking Israeli official ever sentenced to prison.
The ruling was seen as a triumph for women's rights - and specifically, rape victims' rights - and for a legal system willing to take on one of the country's most influential figures.
Katsav, who has proclaimed his innocence throughout the affair, sat stone-faced throughout the ruling. He left the court grim-faced.
Katsav, 65, was convicted last December of raping a former employee when he was a Cabinet minister and of sexually harassing two other women during his term as president from 2000 to 2007. He received a seven-year prison sentence in March, but was allowed to stay out of jail pending appeal.
Reading their opinions, the judges said Katsav's testimony had not been credible and accused him of exploiting his status as a high public official.
The former president "fell from the loftiest heights to the deepest depths," Judge Salim Joubran told the court. "Such a senior official should be a role model to his subordinates. Every woman has a right to her own body, a right to dignity, a right to freedom."
Katsav's attorney, Avigdor Feldman, said he "did not agree" with the outcome of the appeal and faulted the judges for believing the rape victim despite holes in her testimony.
But prosecutor Naomi Granot said: "This ruling confirms that in the state of Israel all are equal before the law."
Katsav maintains he is the victim of a political witch-hunt, but judges in March accused him of lying.
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