Former Israeli president Katsav formally indicted for rape

Former Israeli president Moshe Katsav was officially indicted on charges of rape on Thursday and indecent assault against a female aide, justice ministry said.

The indictment was filed in a Tel Aviv court. No trial date has been fixed yet.

Indictment charges filed against Katsav include that of sexual assault on a female worker at the president's Residence, attorney general Menachem Mazuz announced. He is also suspected of obstruction of justice.

Katsav is charged with two counts of raping a female aide, who worked at the Tourism Ministry from March 1998 to January 1999, when he was tourism minister.

One rape allegedly took place in the minister's office in Tel Aviv and the other at a hotel in Jerusalem. Katsav will also be charged with forcible indecent assault and abusing the employer-employee relationship, Haaretz reported.

In addition, Katsav will be charged with lesser offenses against two employees of the president's Residence - whom he allegedly hugged repeatedly against her will.

Mazuz has not yet decided exactly what Katsav will be charged with in these cases, but a draft indictment dating from May 2007 accused him of indecent assault and sexual harassment against both women.

Karsav contends he is innocent and is ready for trial to clear his name. He resigned in 2007, two-weeks before the expiry of his seven-year term. 

In another case of assault, Katsav hugged and kissed a woman on the neck against her will. He will be charged with obstruction of justice in this case as he asked for details of her police interrogation and even tried to influence her statement.

Police began investigating Katsav in the summer of 2006, and in January 2007, Mazuz announced he intended to charge Katsav with rape.

At a subsequent hearing with Katsav's attorneys, however, Mazuz was convinced that there were serious problems with the evidence.

He therefore decided instead to sign a plea bargain with Katsav that included comparatively mild sexual offenses such as indecent assault and sexual harassment.

The plea bargain, signed in June 2007, was promptly challenged in the High Court of Justice, which upheld it February 2008.

But then, last April, Katsav withdrew from the plea bargain, sparking a year of wrangling within the prosecution as to whether the evidence was sufficient for an indictment at all, and if so, on what charges.