Last update - 00:00 01/10/2006
Officials deny saying President had consensual sex with 'A.'
By Amiram Barkat and Roni Singer-Haruti, Haaretz Correspondents
Senior officials at the President's Residence vehemently denied stating in private conversations that President Moshe Katsav had had a consensual relationship with his former secretary, known as A., who has accused him of rape.
An official to whom one such statement was attributed said following the report on it in Haaretz and other media outlets that he was being framed. The official termed "deranged" the claim by A. that Katsav had compelled her to have sex with him at the President's Residence.
Katsav himself said shortly after the scandal began that he has never had non-professional relations with female employees at the President's Residence.
Meanwhile, A. filed a complaint Friday with the Jerusalem police against Katsav's lawyer, Zion Amir, for illegally mentioning her full name during a live television interview Thursday evening.
A.'s lawyer, Kinneret Barashi, said that she regretted that the matter had reached such a point and that her client would have settled for a letter of apology from Amir.
Amir told Haaretz on Thursday that he accidentally mentioned the complainant's name in the heat of the moment, and that he apologized immediately afterward on the air.
Investigators are expected to wrap up their work by the end of this week and transfer all materials to the State Prosecutor's office, where a decision is to be made on indictments of Katsav and A.