Israel Matzav

Supreme Court finds him guilty? !

I'm about to run out to my morning shiur (this is being posted several minutes before you will see it), and Israel radio is reporting live that the Supreme Court is in the process of reading its opinion and affirming the conviction of former President Moshe Katzav for rape.

However, they may still reduce the seven-year prison sentence that the district court imposed.

I will have more about this after 10:15.

For those who call us an 'apartheid state,' the three justice panel is headed by a woman and includes an Arab.

UPDATE 10:47 AM

The Supreme Court rejected the appeal completely. Katzav goes to jail for seven years starting December 7 (anyone else would have been sent to jail immediately).

"A deep sadness falls over the State of Israel because a person who was a minister in the government, the deputy prime minister and the president of the country carried out these acts," the ruling read. "The hardest thing of all is to see that the person who used to be the symbol of the land of Israel is going to prison."

The ruling went on to call rape "one of the most terrible crimes," and added that the worst thing is that "he did it in the President's Residence, at the height of his public career" and "used his power to carry out rape and sexual assault against hist staff."

The former president looked visibly upset as the verdict was read.

The court rejected Katsav's defense that Aleph's version of the encounter between the two is a lie because she didn't complain at the time but waited until later. The ruling said there was no doubt that Katsav carried out the act with force.

The court also did not accept the line of defense that there was a romance between Aleph and Katsav.

Immediately after the ruling was read, Katsav's lawyer, Zion Amir, requested a further postponement of several weeks. The court responded that Katsav must report to the Tel Aviv District court on December 7, 2011 to begin his prison term.

At the end of the court session, Israel Radio interviewed Avigdor Feldman, one of the country's most prominent Leftist attorneys, who was one of Katzav's attorneys. Feldman blasted the Supreme Court for just accepting everything the lower court said. It will be interesting to see whether Feldman is disciplined. Less prominent and more Right-leaning attorneys would stand a much better chance of being disciplined for the scathing attack that Feldman made on the court.

Labels: Moshe Katzav, rape

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:30 AM