Last update - 00:00 30/01/2007
AG to Knesset legal adviser: Tell Katsav to quit official residence
By Gideon Alon and Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondents
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on Tuesday told the Knesset legal adviser that she must order President Moshe Katsav to leave the President's Residence in Jerusalem for the course of his three-month temporary incapacitation.
Mazuz said, "this issue has been requested in light of reports that the president plans to continue to stay in the President's Residence during his temporary leave of absence. This is not in line with the purpose of the law to create a temporary leave of absence following a criminal investigation."
The attorney general said this was a necessary step in light of the circumstances, "when one of the victims still works at the President's Residence, when employees of the residence have been investigated in the case and some of them are likely to testify for the prosecution, and when the president is implicated, and is subject to a hearing, in the crime of harassing witnesses and obstructing justice."
Mazuz said that while he believed Katsav must leave the President's Residence, that did not mean the president should be stripped of his salray, vehicle or employment terms during his incapacitation.
The President's Residence said that other than a brief visit Monday, Katsav has not been there for five days: Immediately after the Knesset approved his decision to suspend himself, he moved back to Kiryat Malachi.
Also Tuesday, the Knesset House Committee said that hearings on the dismissal of President Moshe Katsav will begin within two weeks.
During Tuesday's meeting, the panel also unanimously agreed the procedure to be followed. A detailed complaint drafted by 30 Knesset members calling for his ouster will be presented to Katsav on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Attorneys for the president will have until then to prepare their case.
The committee will be able to delay the start of the hearings if it receives a detailed request from the president or from one third of the Knesset members who signed the complaint.
The committee will also be authorized to summon Attorney General Mazuz or his representative to the hearings.
The hearings are estimated to last a month to six weeks, including debates in the Knesset plenum.
The request must win the support of 19 of the 25 committee members, and be passed in the Knesset plenum by 90 of the 120 MKs.
Elstein responds to criticism
Knesset legal advisor Nurit Elstein responded angrily Tuesday morning to criticism leveled at her during a committee meeting a day earlier.
Several committee members blasted Elstein for what they called a deception, as she had failed to make it clear that the president can, at any time, end his period of suspension without notifying the Knesset.
MKs Limor Livnat (Likud) and Zahava Gal-On (Meretz) said the omission was extremely serious, and MK Zvi Hendel (National Union-NRP) called for Elstein's resignation.
Elstein's office said, however, that MK Ruhama Avraham, the committee chairman, presented the information to panel members last Thursday.
At the meeting, Elstein responded to the charges by saying that the MKs were acting unfairly. "There is no basis for these accusations - someone tried to conceal information from the MKs," she said.
Elstein also criticized lawmakers who claimed she had been absent from several of the committee meetings.
"A great injustice is being done to me. I have been sick for three weeks and even went to the emergency room. Whoever thinks I'm faking it had better retract his accusations. [Harming] my own dignity I can forgive, but not that of the Knesset," she said.
Katsav will see the draft indictment against him for the first time Tuesday. The Jerusalem district prosecutor's office made the document available to the president's attorney, Professor David Libai, on Monday.
Katsav, Libai and Katsav's other lawyer, Zion Amir, agreed not to release any of the document's details.
The low media profile, which is in contrast to the media accessibility afforded by Katsav and his associates over the past six months, is to enable the president's legal team to study the evidence carefully for contradictions that might persuade Mazuz to be lenient in the hearing he is to hold for Katsav before the indictment is finalized.
Katsav's associates said Monday that his attorneys also made a commitment to the State Prosecutor's Office not to release details of the indictment until it is final.
Related link
Katsav draft indictment: Women tried to physically repel him