Last update - 00:00 09/10/2006
Police present data on Katsav case, but do not call to indict
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent
The police handed information regarding President Moshe Katsav's alleged sexual harassment of a former employee to the state prosecutor on Monday but have refrained from giving a recommendation on whether to indict him.
Senior officers said they were waiting until the investigation is complete to hand down the recommendation. Investigators say they still have to hear the testimony of a few witnesses before handing in the recommendation next week.
The investigators have presented evidence that could be the foundation of a case against Katsav on charges of sexual offenses, including rape, irregularities in the granting of pardons, and wiretapping.
Police are still deliberating whether to present a recommendation to the prosecution, despite Attorney General Menachem Mazuz's request that the officers make their recommendation as soon as possible.
It became clear during the meeting on Monday that the police officers and the prosecution do not see eye to eye on the ability to transform the evidence gathered during the investigation into a complete charge sheet.
The prosecution does not believe it will be able to include all of the suspicions investigated by the police in the charges waged against Katsav. Thus, police are debating whether to present the prosecution with recommendations and put further pressure on the prosecution to indict the president on all the charges.
Police could also choose not to file their recommendation and only present the facts of the case, thus allowing the prosecution more leeway in determining the charges included in the indictment.
Head of the police investigations department Major General Yohanan Danino, the head of the investigation into the Katsav affair, Brigadier General Yoav Seglovitch and State Prosecutor Eran Shendar met on Monday over the affair..
The data collected so far reveals Katsav allegedly committed sexual offenses against three or four women. He is only suspected to have raped one of them, his former employee dubbed "A.," whom he has accused of blackmailing him.
A senior police officer said "the act that the complainant described is, in fact, rape committed against her, allegedly, by the president, but it is not clear whether the evidence gathered in addition [to the testimony] is enough to verify and prove that it is, in fact, rape and not assault or forbidden consensual sex."
Thus, the officer said police will probably prefer not to hand down a recommendation on whether to indict Katsav on rape charges or charges of forbidden consensual sexual relations. The officer said with regards to these issues "we will allow the prosecution to draw its own conclusions."