Mazuz orders probe into Katsav blackmail affair

[Scurrilous]

Attorney General Mazuz orders police to launch investigation into blackmailing affair involving president. In letter to Mazuz, president claims his alleged blackmail by former secretary was not related to sexual harassment charges; states woman threatened to say he granted amnesties for money. Experts says president can be summoned for interrogation only upon attorney general's approval.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3274100,00.html

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"On Wednesday morning police will launch one of the most complex and tangled inquiries it has been tasked with for a long time. At the center of the investigation: President Moshe Katsav, a former employee, a blackmail that maybe didn’t happen and an incident of sexual harassment which no one filed a complaint about.

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz instructed the launch of the investigation Tuesday after receiving a letter from the president, in which Katsav states his alleged blackmailing by a former secretary did not involve sexual harassment charges."

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"A senior police official told Ynet that it was too soon to establish whether the president himself would be probed in the affair. Another possibility that was being examined was that Katsav would be asked to testify in the case, the official said. “During inquiries, we generally investigate both sides,” he said. “After the first round of investigations, we’ll know in which direction it will develop.”

So what will the next few days look like? In the halls of the justice establishment, there is talk that during the investigation – possibly through various media channels –more women will join the charges claiming some relation or other with the president. Professor Emanuel Gross, a criminal law expert, assessed that the former employee would be asked to give testimony or would be probed.

"I suppose that the president was merely trying to call the attorney general's attention to the fact it wasn't certain from the beginning whether there was a criminal aspect to that behavior. The president said he was baffled as to where the idea of sexual harassment came from," he said."


Six more women accuse Katsav of sexual harassment

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"At least six women who worked with President Moshe Katsav before he became president said he sexually harassed them, Haaretz has learned. The accusations - all by women who refuse to be publicly identified - came amid reports aired over the weekend that Katsav sexually harassed a former employee at the President's Residence.

After reports about the former employee, identified only as A., Katsav indicated that she had attempted to blackmail him, and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz opened an investigation into the matter yesterday.

The six women's testimony, both firsthand and indirect, indicates a pattern in which Katsav took advantage of his position to sexually harass them, turning from a boss with a pleasant manner into one who makes comments with sexual overtones, and then moves on to attempt sexual contact. The women said that when they refused his overtures, they encountered a cold and patronizing attitude to the point where they felt compel led to quit.

"When I came to the minister's office, they told me: 'We'll see if you get through the first 100 days'," recalled B., who said Katsav sexually harassed her while she was working at his office during the time he served as a minister. "I didn't understand. I was innocent. I didn't know that they were hinting about what was going to happen. I didn't know that the minister's behavior is the best-kept secret in the system. The pattern was to take advantage and toss aside. Everyone knew and kept silent."

The President's Residence refused to respond to anonymous complaints."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/737372.html