Police recommend charging Katsav with rape and eavesdropping

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"The police team investigating allegations against President Moshe Katsav on Sunday recommended that the president be charged with rape, indecent sexual assault, fraud and illegal wiretapping.

The investigators presented their findings and recommendations on indictment to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz and senior officials in the State Prosecutor's office, and said they had consolidated enough evidence to try the president.

Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino, head of police investigation and intelligence, and Deputy Commissioner Yoav Sigalovich, also recommended against trying A., the former President's Residence employee whose alleged blackmail of the president spurred the controversy, for lack of evidence.

Jerusalem District Attorney Eli Abarbanel, who has been monitoring the case, is expected to complete his recommendation on indictment in the next few days and pass it on to State Prosecutor Eran Shendar, along with a draft indictment. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz is expected to make his final decision on the case within two weeks."

more

[Nolo_Contendre]

1. Interesting case, "consensual sex" with a subordinate, extortion, rape

Israel - Haaretz: Police may charge Israeli President Moshe Katsav with rape in light of woman’s claims August 22, 2006
By Jonathan Lis and Roni Singer-Heruti, Haaretz Correspondents
Haaretz (Israel)
August 18, 2006

Officials investigating an alleged extortion attempt aimed at President Moshe Katsav are expected to question him following claims by a female former employee that she was coerced into engaging in sexual relations with the president.

...
By law, intimate relations with a woman who is precluded from providing full consent by her own volition is considered rape. If, however, investigators find the relations were consensual, police could recommend charging Katsav with “forbidden consensual intercourse,” a statute which forbids exploiting a position of authority in the workplace for the purposes of having sex.

The former employee at the President’s Residence told the police that since the affair surrounding Katsav’s alleged sexual harassment and attempted extortion became known, the president’s men had been pressuring her in an attempt to silence her.

Some two months ago, Katsav gave Attorney General Menachem Mazuz a letter, in which he said that he believed the former employee had tried to extort him, threatening that if he denied her requests she would accuse him of sexual harassment.

The woman consented to take a lie detector test about a week ago. The test included questions about the sexual contact between the employee and the president, and indicated that the woman had answered several questions truthfully. However, in other cases her answers were not unequivocal and the police were collecting testimonies to corroborate or refute her testimony.
...
Haaretz learned that unlike the first reports on the affair, which dealt with the president’s alleged sexual harassment, the former employee told the police under caution that the president had used his authority and senior position to coerce her into having sexual relations with him.
...
The affair began when the president met Mazuz and told him he suspected a former employee, whom he had met recently, had threatened to accuse him of sexual harassment unless he did as she asked. She also threatened to expose alleged irregularities in the president’s process of granting pardons.

[Englander]

2. Judge Benisch: Court can't sit silently by disrespect of the law

By Yuval Yoaz and Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondents

Supreme Court President Dorit Benisch clearly hinted to President Moshe Katsav on Monday that the High Court of Justice does in fact have the authority to rule whether he should be forced to resign, when she said, "the court cannot stand silent in the face of direspect of the law."

Katsav told the court on Monday in an official letter that it has no authority to rule on a petition calling for his resignation or to issue him orders.

In apparent reference to the letter, Benisch said, "It's not arbitrary that today in particular I am exerting judicial activism in the face of the other power authorities. Everybody who thinks that the High Court's authority is limited to rulings on matters compelling public good, as opposed to the unacceptable norms disseminated in Israeli reality today, does not understand the natural tension that exists between authorities."

A petition filed by Josef Fuchs several weeks ago called on the High Court to order Katsav to step down until a final decision is made on whether to charge him with sexual offenses, including rape.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/781015.html

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Someone has to ask it.

This has what to do with I/P?

On edit: Oh nooooooo! It is the Israeli version of the attack of the "Clenis!"

[pelsar]

4. i was thinking the samthing...

the relevance to the I/P conflict...unless of course the the original poster is explaining how israel is one of the few countries in the world (much less in the middle east) where even the president can be accused and brought to the court room.

i guess that must be it...showing the contrast between a liberal democracy that celebrates the rule of law vs the Hamas version or the Fatah version of "rule of law" which at different times consists of stringing up "traitors on electrical poles, draging their bodies in the streets, executions of "homosexuals", burning down of the YMCA, simply because it is the YMCA...

good Original Post and the celebration of a country where nobody is above the law!

and of course:
"Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza strip view Israeli democracy as the preferred model for a regime that they would like to see applied in a future Palestinian state,

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110005185


good luck to them...with friends like the ones they have...i dont think they're going to get their democracy..israeli style.

[Scurrilous]

5. Katsav in world media (10/16/06)

President's sex scandal appears in world papers, international TV broadcasts from CNN to BBC

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3315539,00.html

<snip>

"Israel has returned to international media, but this time, instead of fighter planes or rockets, the focus of the reports is civilian: the President Katsav affair."

<snip>

"More than one paper published an item on the affair Monday, pursuant to a police recommendation that the president be charged with rape. British papers 'The Guardian' and 'The Times' featured the topic on the front pages.

The Guardian and American newspaper 'New York Times' published, along with the articles, a profile of President Katsav (not a known figure among foreign readers) and a summary of events so far.

Even in France, where sex scandals are a regular occurrence, the president didn't escape notice. Newspaper 'Le Monde' published on its front pages an article with the heading: 'Israeli president involved in rape scandal.'



The Guardian, The Times, Sky News, BBC, CNN, The New York Times, Le Monde, and DU's I/P forum. :thumbsup:

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pelsar]

10. the special interest of israel....

perhaps your trying to show how the interest is israeli society is way beyond what happens in other countries?...that too would make sense as we see it also with how busy the UN is with israel while not so busy with for instance the British illegal occupation of the Malvinas or Russias bombing of Chechnia?

I do agree the interest in israeli democracy is quite the contrast to the Palestinian theocratic govt of hamas, who has made it clear that women belong in potato sacks, where insulting the pm means putting your life in your hands...quite the contrast isnt it..and what a dangerous society that is...where outside enemies are very important to have (continual fighting)

lets fact it, few countries at constant war would be able to keep a liberal democracy going with all those pressures and indict presidents, generals and others for wrong doings..all the while fighting off countries where dictatorships are more the rule than democracy.

but your right..israel has the interest of the world way beyond its physical presence, be it its nobel price winners, its ability to invent, its technological achievements, its research, and of course its liberal democracy which lets the different faiths all pray at their respective places...quite the achievement!

[Englander]

7. Why are you equating this with the Lewinsky affair?

For any comparison to make sense, that would mean believing that Clinton was a rapist, wouldn't
it? It would also mean believing that Clinton was guilty of sexual harrassment, corruption, fraud,
illegal wiretapping, &tc. Otherwise, the comparison doesn't make any sense. Or, it would also mean
believing that the Israeli attorney general is taking the role of that Starr nutter in this instance,
& is only persecuting Katsav because of a warped political agenda, & not because of anything he's
most likely guilty of.

'Mazuz: Katsav should step down

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz believes that President Moshe Katsav must suspend himself from his role following police recommendations to issue an indictment against him.

In response to a High Court petition, Mazuz wrote: "When there is a police investigation against the president of the State related to a severe criminal offense, whose character, essence, and circumstances are disgraceful, the president must consider taking a temporary leave of absence by turning to Knesset to establish a temporary incapacity."

"At this point in time we are at a stage where the attorney general has already been presented with the findings of the investigation into President Katsav's affair, and the material is currently being examined and evaluated by a team of lawyers," Mazuz added.

>snip

Katsav is also suspected of harassing a witness and obstruction of justice, but the investigation on the issue has yet to be completed.

A statement issued by the police and the Justice Ministry at the time said that "there is alleged evidential basis that in a number of affairs, involving several women – including A. – who worked under Katsav, the president committed sex offenses, including rape, forceful indecent assault, indecent assault without consent and sexual harassment offenses.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3320717,00.html

[Englander]

8. Like these?

This has what to do with I/P?

British politician resigns after anti-Semitic slur
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=124&topic_id=124827

Muslim cleric: Punish gay perverts
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=124&topic_id=128503

SWC accuses BBC of broadcasting “blood libels”
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=124&topic_id=150045

[Stockholm]

9. LOL

:rofl:

[Scurrilous]

11. High Court: President not entitled to immunity from judicial process

<snip>

"The High Court of Justice on Thursday decided that it was under its jurisdiction to continue examination of a petition calling for the immediate resignation of President Moshe Katsav over a litany of allegations, including two counts of rape.

Katsav told the court earlier this week that it had no authority to force him to step down, as requested in a petition submitted by attorney Josef Fuchs, arguing that the president enjoys immunity from any legal proceeding.

In denying Katsav's rebuke, the court issued a significant ruling rejecting the president's claim that he is entitled to judicial immunity.

Judge David Cheshin ruled that Fuchs petition would be evaluated by a panel of three judges, who would present their ruling by the end of the month."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/783314.html