Last update - 00:00 16/09/2006
Another Katsav associate under investigation in pardons affair
By Estie Aharonvitz, Roni Singer-Heruti and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent
Another associate of President Moshe Katsav is under investigation with regard to the presidential pardons affair, according to a source in the police.
Haaretz has learned that police are investigating a number of cases in which Avraham Golan, who has been close to Katsav for many years, is suspected of intervening in the process of presidential pardons. Golan, a resident of Holon, is known in the Iranian Jewish community as the closest member of this community to Katsav for decades.
During Katsav's term in office Golan presented himself as the president's aide and adviser in liaising with the community and delivered addresses in the name of the president at various Iranian Jewish community events. Over the years Golan became known as someone who could "help" with the president, and people turned to him with various problems regarding employment, donations and apparently also presidential pardons.
Haaretz has evidence that a woman asked Golan to "speak to the president" regarding a pardon that was then pending. The woman recently approached the police and asked investigators to scrutinize Golan's involvement in the release of her father's murderer.
Golan was a frequent visitor to the President's Residence. He was described by employees as polite and somewhat strange, and as someone who would sometimes pester employees with various requests.
"He would call five times a day," said a Katsav bureau staffer said, "and ask me to bring up pardon files according to names he had. The names were mainly Persian [Iranian-Jewish]. Golan introduced himself in every letter as the president's adviser on the Persian community," she said.
"After I would bring the files to the president, he would speak to the president again. Sometimes when I would be sitting with the president in the room, they would transfer a call to him from Golan. The president himself would write down the name Golan gave him, and then he would write a memo to the legal adviser or ask that the file be brought directly to him."
A former employee in the President's Residence said the whole staff knew Golan as a good friend of the president. "He would come to the public appeals office and leave letters there from poor people who wanted a contribution from the president's fund. I would put him off gently. Once I said to him, 'Listen, there are official procedures for this matter. You have to attach a social worker's report before it can be brought up for discussion by the committee dealing with the president's fund."
People in the Tourism Ministry, where Katsav was minister, also recall Golan, who they say more than once joined Katsav on trips abroad. "There was always a group of business people around Katsav," a woman who worked with Katsav at that time said. "One of the people who was always there was Avi Golan."
Golan owned a shoe store for years in the old Tel Aviv central bus station, and until the Katsav affair became public, the other merchants would speak proudly of their colleague who was "the president's friend." Today they are silent.
Golan is one of a small number of business people chose to Katsav, as reported first by Haaretz, who had access to files on pardons. Another name on the list is Uri Yoeli, a presidential confidant who, according to the testimony an employee at the President's Residence gave the police recently, would sit in the pardons archive and examine confidential files. "I commented to the girls in the archives," she said, "that Yoeli should not be seeing those files."
President's Residence director general Moshe Goral and legal advisor Yonah Sheindorf are expected to return to work Sunday morning following their questioning under caution Tuesday. They were interrogated at the police's financial crimes division in Lod on suspicion of breach of trust and fraud.
Police asked the two not to return to work until today to allow investigators to complete their investigation of Katsav. Goral and Sheindorf were questioned regarding irregularities in the granting of presidential pardons, although police said there were no suspicions that pardons were given to those not eligible.
Police to hand findings of Katsav probe to AG this week
The team of investigators probing suspicions involving Katsav is expected to submit its recommendations to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz this week.
The group will present evidence to determine whether an indictment should be issued against Katsav and what charges should be made, or whether additional evidence is needed.
Sources close to the investigation said Saturday that, so far, Katsav has not managed to allay the suspicions against him. Police said Friday that in recent weeks, seven women had come forward to complain of sexual harassment or attacks by the president. The statute of limitations has run out in most of these cases, meaning that charges cannot be filed; however, police said they intend to utilize them to draw a picture of Katsav's "serial" and problematic conduct toward female subordinates.
Katsav was also questioned last week on suspicion of eavesdropping on his bureau staff's private phone conversations by means of a system installed for that purpose. A former security officer at the President's Residence told investigators about the system, which has meanwhile been removed.