Last update - 00:00 26/09/2006
President's accuser says he told her sex 'was all consensual'
By Roni Singer-Heruti, Haaretz Correspondent
"The report yesterday in Yedioth Ahronoth so infuriated me, I felt so angered by these lies, that I decided I want to talk," the former President's Residence employee known as A., who alleges that Moshe Katsav forced her to have sex with him, told Haaretz on Tuesday.
The daily newspaper Yedioth yesterday published the transcript of the alleged conversation between A. and the president, as it was secretly taped by Katsav. This recording is the key evidence in the investigation of the suspicion that A. tried to blackmail Katsav.
According to A., "partial things were published. The sentences were connected from the end of one sentence to another, and connected in such a way that even I didn't really manage to understand what was said there. Only I know the truth, and this is not how it was."
In her police statement, A. said Katsav told her during their conversation, "everything that happened between us was consensual," to which she replied, "what consent are you talking about? You hurt me physically and emotionally, you used me."
The exchange allegedly occurred during the same telephone conversation that Katsav recorded and passed on to the police to support his accusation that A. had attempted to blackmail him. This alleged part of the conversation, however, does not appear on the tape Katsav gave to the police.
A.'s lawyer, Kinneret Barashi, claims the tape currently in the possession of the police "is partial and not full-length."
Investigators believe there is sufficient evidence to indict A. for blackmail. The phone conversation between A. and Katsav lasted more than 45 minutes, and was presumably recorded in full. However, police officials confirmed to Haaretz on Monday that the recording in their possession was only a few minutes long. Nonetheless, police do not suspect the tape was "doctored" or that only a partial version was transfered to them.
The Yedioth report indicates that A. demanded $200,000 in compensation from the president: "I disgust myself ... All I think is that $200,000 is pennies to you..."
In response to this, A. told Haaretz, "when I arrived for the meeting with him, I had no intention of speaking about money. The context for the parts of sentences that were published was an earlier conversation in which a money matter arose, but I cannot expand on that subject."
While A. has declined to address this matter, sources told Haaretz that the conversation about money grew out of accusations A. had directed at Katsav. Shortly after the meeting began, A. told Katsav that while walking down the street she encountered a stranger who introduced himself as a foreign journalist, and offered her $500,000 for her story; "like Monica Lewinsky's," he told her.
A. suspected the man was an envoy from Katsav, who sought in this way to ascertain whether she intended to go public with what had occured between them. Katsav, A. claims, replied, "I don't have half a million dollars," to explain he was unconnected to the man in question. A. told him, "so give me $200,000, you could treat it as compensation." Later, she claims she told him, "I don't want to talk about money ... even if you gave me 2 million, it wouldn't help me after what you did."
According to Yedioth, A. told Katsav: "I am a 30-year-old woman. I don't want my life to be around my parents ... I can't even buy an apartment..." A. claims that bits of statements were omitted from this too. She says she told Katsav at the start of their meeting that because he had hurt her, she was in a situation that did not permit her to rent an apartment "even though I am a 30-year-old woman."
"If the president managed to bring Yedioth a transcript containing parts of things spoken at the start of our conversation but also things from its end, I am convinced he has in his possession the full-length tape of our meeting," A. told Haaretz.
At the end of the interview on Tuesday, A. said she is currently going through tough times. "All this exposure is affecting me and my family. I knew this is what would happen to me from the moment I came out with the story. I feel that I've sacrificed myself for truth and justice."
All of the material in the case is expected to go to the State Prosecutor's Office sometime next week, thereby ending the police investigation.