Trial of former Israeli president Katsav resumes

TEL AVIV - The court judging former Israeli President Moshe Katsav on charges of sexual misconduct, including rape, began hearing prosecution testimony Tuesday, and two former ministers began started serving jail terms after recently being found guilty of corruption.

Katsav, president from 2000 until he was forced to resign in 2007 in wake of the sexual harassment scandal, is charged with the rape and sexual assault of a female aide while he was tourism minister, the sexual harassment of two other aides while president, and obstruction of justice.

He has denied all the accusations.

Katsav’s trial, which began with his lawyers formally rejecting all the charges against their client, formally opened in May this year but was adjourned until Tuesday.

Two prosecution witnesses, who both worked in the president’s office, were due to be called. The trial will be held behind closed doors, to protect the privacy of the complainants.

The charges against Katsav first came to light in July 2006, when the then-president complained to Attorney General Menahem Mazuz that he was being blackmailed by a female employee in the president’s office.

Mazuz launched an investigation, which came to include allegations that Katsav himself had been guilty of sexual misconduct.

As he investigation continued, other women who had worked with Katsav over the years also lodged complaints against him.

In 2007 Mazuz announced a plea bargain, whereby Katsav would not be charged with rape, but would plead guilty to lesser charges and resign as president.

Katsav did leave the presidency, but in May last year his lawyers announced they were cancelling the plea bargain and said their client would not plead guilty to any charges of sexual misconduct.

In related developments, two former ministers who were both found guilty of corruption in separate trials presented themselves at prisons to begin serving their sentences.

Former health and welfare minister Shlomo Benizri is to serve four years in a prison in central Israel after bring found guilty of taking bribes, breach of trust, conspiring to commit a crime and obstruction of justice.

He was originally convicted in April 2008, and an appeal against his sentence backfired when the court decided in June this year to increase it from 18 months to four years.

Former finance minister Avraham Hirschson, who was convicted in June of embezzling over $1 million during his tenure as head of the National Federation of Workers (NFW) between 1998 and 2005, will serve a five and a half year sentence at a prison in northern Israel.