Israeli president to admit sex crimes
• The move will see Moshe Katsav escape jail over rape allegations
• Katsav will pay damages to complainants and resign from the presidency
• Katsav to plead guilty to sexual harassment, indecent acts and harassing witness
JERUSALEM (AP) -- President Moshe Katsav has reached a plea bargain that forces him to resign but includes no rape charges and will entail no jail time, Attorney General Meni Mazuz said Thursday.
Under the deal, Katsav will plead guilty to sexual harassment, indecent acts and harassing a witness.
He will not serve jail time, but will pay damages to complainants and resign from the presidency, Mazuz told a news conference.
Katsav requested the plea bargain, Mazuz said. Details of the deal were finalized shortly before the news conference began, he said.
Original article posted here.A': Katsav terrorized me mentally and physically
"Katsav terrorized me mentally and physically," A' the former Beit Hanassi employee who accused President Moshe Katsav of sexually abusing her told a press conference on Thursday, during which she d
escribed how continuous harassment at the hands of the president eventually culminated in her rape.
A tearful A' recounted how, soon after she started working for the president, Katsav would call her, bothering her with compliments like: "You are so sexy," and: "I dreamt about you last night."
She claimed that he would confide in her, saying how "sad and lonely" he was. She said that while that such conversations and compliments were at first friendly, they soon became "exhausting"
She described Katsav as "narcissist" and "obsessed with himself."
She then described how on one occasion, Katsav asked her to come to work wearing a skirt with no underwear.
A' then claimed that on another occasion Katsav exposed his penis and told her: "Sit next to me, touch it."
She told reporters how her resignation was refused twice and then the situation became even more unbearable.
A' then described how the president put his hand inside her shirt, caressing her chest and, a few days later, raped her in his office.
"He pushed me to a corner of table, pinned my hands down, and he opened my pants," A' said. "He's a very strong man. I'm strong too, but I wasn't strong inside to deal with it. I surrendered, but I was still objecting. "
"He threw my pants onto a sofa and we had sex."
A' explained that during the rest of her tenure at the President's Office, the act was repeated on two or three occasions.
"The first time it happened I left the office in a rage. I sat on some bench in a park,, smoked a cigarette, and cried without stopping," A' told the reporters. "I thought to myself, why me?"
"I didn't come back for another two weeks," she said. "During this time I received all sorts of calls from close associates of Katsav. They wanted me to call him."
A' said how when she finally called him, he was not at all apologetic.
"He said that he could
destroy my life, that I should just keep quiet about it, and that I should return to the office." A' said. "'Are you not ashamed, where is your professional responsibility' he told me."
"I returned in the end to the office. No one knew, of course. I made up some story about being sick and wasn't able to come back," A' said.
At this point in the interview, A' became angry.
"As I said, this thing, sex, it happened a few more times. I don't know how it happened. But it happened. It happened. It's enough that it happened!" she declared.
"I trusted the legal system but it has let me down," she said.
A' went on to say that Katsav's planned admission of committing an indecent act using force in a plea bargain agreement was of no comfort to her. "When I heard about the plea bargain I broke down in tears," she said.
"I want an explanation from the state of Israel as to why I was not included in the formulation of the plea bargain," A' complained, exclaiming "Moshe Katsav is a rapist and a serial sex offender."
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