Last update - 00:00 01/01/2007
Witnesses: H. called Ramon 'hunk,' said she has 'hots for him'
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent
Three Prime Minister's Office workers on Monday morning testified on behalf of the defense in the trial of former justice minister Haim Ramon, who is being accused of forcing an indecent act on a female soldier.
The employees said they heard the complainant making sexually suggestive cooments about the former minister in the PMO kitchen shortly before the kiss.
The judges' verdict, which was delayed pending the workers' testimony, will be released no earlier than next Tuesday.
According to the new testimony , H., the complainant, said he was "a hunk" and that she "has the hots for him" shortly before Ramon kissed her.
The first witness, Dalia Ezra, an employee in the PMO cafeteria, said that H. had told her that "Haim Ramon is such a hunk, he does it for me."
Ezra said she had reacted to H.'s comment with surprise and asked, "What?", to which H. answered, "Yeah, he does it for me."
Ezra also said, "I understood that comment to mean she would readily go to bed with him, as if she didn't care."
Dafna Azran, a cafeteria worker who also heard the conversation, said it took place on Sunday, the day of the cabinet meeting.
"H. walked in and said 'Haim Ramon looks like such a hunk today,' gestured backwards, and said, 'I have the hots for him.' Azran said, "We laughed," because they saw the comments as humorous.
The Prime Minister's advisor on Ultra-Orthodox affairs Rivka Faloch was also in the cafeteria at the time the statements were made.
"There was a racket in the kitchen. I hear this soldier saying, 'have you seen Ramon, he's such a hunk today, have you seen him, I can't take it, I have the hots for him,' again and again she repeated it three or four times," Said Faloch.
Faloch added that at the PMO, people "kiss all the time. Ministers with ministers, ministers with other ministers' assistants, with the secretaries. That's the way this world is - I'm not criticizing it."
Falouch, an ultra-orthodox herself, asked not to repeat the term "slut," which she used to describe H. following her statements in the kitchen, and instead wrote the word down on a note and handed it to the judges.
Following Faloch's testimony, the prosecutor in Ramon's trial, attorney Segal-Antele, said she would notify the court on Tuesday if she wishes to summon H. to testify to counter Monday's testimonies.
If H. is summoned to testify, she will do so next Tuesday, and the verdict will be further delayed.