Israel Matzav

Will Israel's first rapist President be its first imprisoned one?

Perverted former President Moshe Katsav arrived in court today and pleaded 'not guilty' to various sex-related charges against him, thereby reneging on a plea bargain that outraged the country and that would have had him plead guilty to minor sexual harassment charges. Let's go to the videotape of his arrival in court and then I will give you a little translation and more details.



The tape you just saw was taken from Israel's Channel 10 cable news. The people in the background are yelling "rapist, rapist" as Katsav was being brought into court amidst a security cordon (one of the charges Katsav would have avoided had he stuck with the plea bargain is a rape charge). The broadcaster is saying how his wife Gila - that's the plump woman next to him (God only knows why she sticks with him) - could not hold back her tears.


Here are more details on Katsav's entry into the courtroom:

Katsav entered the Jerusalem Magistrates' Court with his wife Gila after circling the court in his car for nearly half an hour, delaying the opening of his trial.

The former president's car was thronged by vocal women's rights protesters and camera crews and far-Right wing activists yelled slogans at him for his support of the 2005 disengagement plan.

Katsav had a plea bargain that was so tilted in his favor that Israelis were outraged. Now he's going to risk it by going to trial. Why? Unfortunately, the answer is quite obvious:

MK Ran Cohen (Meretz) accused Katsav of exploiting decisions made by the prosecution in the process of compiling the plea bargain.

"Katsav's annulment of the plea bargain seems to me to be a sordid ruse, which attempts to depend on the fact that the prosecution has de facto rejected some of the complaints of the plaintiffs," Cohen (Meretz) said.

He assessed that Katsav's defense team "will try to reduce the degree guilt that was agreed upon in the plea bargain."

"I call upon Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz to believe the plaintiffs' versions once more and submit an indictment for the terrible actions that they have related," he said.

But some people are happy that Katsav has rejected his plea deal.

Women's rights groups, who had been pushing for an annulment of the deal throughout, expressed satisfaction with the decision, saying that it would allow the plaintiffs to make their voices heard in court.

"This is an opportunity for the court to call in all of the women who registered complaints against Katsav and were not given the opportunity to level their accusations," Rina Bartel, the chairman of the women's lobby said. "We have opined all along that the plea bargain does not reflect the serious allegations against Katsav and have claimed that a just trial should be held during which all of the evidence would be brought to bear."

MK Zehava Gal-On (Meretz) also voiced satisfaction with the cancellation of the deal.

"It's good that the embarrassing farce of a plea bargain… has been withdrawn," she said. "I call on the Attorney-General [Menahem Mazuz] to learn from his mistakes, and to make Katsav stand trial as soon as possible, like any other serial sex offender."

For once, I agree with the women's rights group. Katsav is a particularly disgusting individual (he's also a walking desecration of God's name as the first President to claim to be religious - he sports a skullcap and had a synagogue installed in the President's residence). I hope he loses his gamble and gets intimately familiar with the inside of a prison cell. As to his wife, I do not understand what makes a woman allow herself to be so egregiously humiliated. Then again, I didn't understand Eliot Spitzer's wife either.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:53 PM