Chutzpa
Only in Israel....Lawyers for former President Moshe Katzav, who has been convicted of raping one of his former female subordinates, have requested a delay in hearing his appeal to the Supreme Court because... they want to go on vacation.
The lawyers requested changing the hearing dates, arguing that they fell on the court’s summer recess and that they had made vacation plans with their families.The court made the right decision (if anything they should have held the hearing after Tisha b'Av, which would also have conflicted with the lawyers' vacations). I don't know a single lawyer in practice who hasn't had a vacation postponed or canceled because of a client's work. You can bet that if Katzav were sitting in jail (like any other citizen convicted of rape would be), they would not be asking for a postponement so that they could go on vacation.
The court’s response said that despite understanding the defense lawyers’s desire to go on vacation with their families during the recess period, what stood in the balance was the need to hear the appeal in as short a time as possible.
The court’s decision stressed that the Courts Administration had made a special effort to schedule the hearings during the recess in order to influence as little as possible the court dates of other petitioners who were scheduled to go before the court.
The court did agree to start the hearings one day earlier out of consideration to Katsav who asked not to attend court on the Jewish holiday of the eve of the 9th of Av.
(Yes, I am doing lots of work for clients this week).
Labels: Moshe Katzav, Supreme Court, Tisha b'Av
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:54 PM
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