Last update - 00:00 19/10/2006
Police: Indict Katsav with obstruction of justice
By Jonathan Lis and Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondents and Service
In addition to a litany of possible charges including rape, corruption and sexual assault, police have recommended that President Moshe Katsav also be charged with obstruction of justice, based on testimony given by two staffers at the President's Residence.
Haaretz has learned that the two workers, a man and woman who are still employed at the residence, said Katsav had implored them to tell him what was being asked during questioning and what the suspicions were against him.
The woman, a young employee known only as L., also filed a complaint against Katsav for sexual harassment. In it, she said that while she was employed as one of Katsav's secretaries, he embraced her in an inappropriate way she interpreted as harassment.
Haaretz has also learned that the woman, who was employed by another senior official at the President's Residence before she worked for Katsav, transferred back to the other official following the alleged harassment.
However, when Haaretz approached the woman a few weeks ago to confirm media reports that the president had harassed her, she denied the events. And the woman's father told Haaretz that she left the president's bureau because she did not get along with the other women working there.
Other workers at the President's Residence reported that the woman changed her name when she left the president's bureau, and said that they
interpreted the name change as possibly being connected to the reason she left the bureau.
Katsav is due to take part Sunday in the official memorial ceremony for former minister Rehavam Ze'evi on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. On Monday, the president and Mrs. Katsav are to attend the Moiseyev Ballet at the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv.
On November 1, a memorial ceremony for former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin will take place at the President's Residence. The annual ceremony beganduring Ezer Weizman's term as president, but this year, for the first time, it will be an official state ceremony, on the recommendation of the Yitzhak Rabin Heritage Center, which was approved by the Knesset Committee on Symbols and Ceremonies.
According to protocol, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch are to participate alongside the president. However, Olmert and Beinisch recently announced that they would be unable to attend the ceremony, and sources at the Rabin Heritage Center expressed concern that other important individuals would boycott the ceremony at the President's Residence as a means of protesting the president's conduct.
Channel 2 television reported on Tuesday that the ceremony venue was to be changed to the Knesset following the police recommendation to indict Katsav. However, President's Residence spokeswoman Hagit Cohen said that the residence has not been informed that the ceremony has been moved to another venue.