Israeli court convicts former president of rape | World news | guardian.co.uk

Quote:

The former Israeli president Moshe Katsav was convicted today of raping an employee when he was a cabinet minister, the most serious criminal charges ever brought against a high-ranking official. Katsav, 65, faces a minimum of four years in prison on two counts of raping one of his employees in 1998 when he was Israel's tourism minister. The Tel Aviv district court also convicted him on lesser counts of indecent acts and sexual harassment involving two other women who worked for him after he became president in 2000. Katsav has denied the charges and claimed to be a victim of a political witch-hunt. He suggested he was targeted because he comes from Israel's Sephardic community, which is of Middle Eastern origin and for decades was an underclass in Israeli society. Katsav was born in Iran and immigrated to Israel as a child. Katsav resigned in 2007, two weeks before his seven-year term as president expired, under a plea bargain that would have required him to admit to lesser charges of sexual misconduct. He was replaced by Shimon Peres in the largely ceremonial role. In April 2009, Katsav rejected the deal and said he wanted to clear his name in court. He held a news conference in which he denied any wrongdoing and criticised prosecutors and journalists. His behaviour was widely criticised. Katsav served as a minister in several rightwing Likud governments before being elected president in 2000.

Well this is pretty unexpected. Kudos to Israel, I suppose, for the no-man-is-above-the-law thing. I'd always assumed that the top three or four offices of state came with... well... you know... I don't want to say droit de seigneur or anything, but it's basically that. I suppose that a president who doesn't actually do anything is a bit borderline, but then I think that the general idea is that they should be too old to do any raping in the first place.

But on the other hand, if you start taking away all the perks, pretty soon no one will want to go into politics at all.

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Quote:

In April 2009, Katsav rejected the deal and said he wanted to clear his name in court.

Oops!

F

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