Last update - 00:00 12/02/2007
Police urge AG to consider examining information leak in Katsav case
By Roni Singer-Heruti, Haaretz Correspondent
Police Investigations and Intelligence chief Yohanan Danino on Monday told Attorney General Menachem Mazuz that he supported opening an investigation to determine who linked material related to the case against President Moshe Katsav to media sources.
Danino's letter to Mazuz came following a request from Katsav's lawyer Tzion Amir. Danino explained that the source of the leak was not the investigating team nor Israel Police. He said he believed the information may have been leaked by parties linked to the case.
"I'll ask to point out that I reject all claims of this type that try to lay blame on police investigators," Danino wrote in his letter.
Kinneret Barashi, attorney to Katsav's alleged rape victim, admitted on Monday that her client had indeed been interviewed by The Sunday Times, giving the correspondent her version of events.
The admission followed a full day of denials that drew strong accusations from Katsav's supporters that A. had changed her story. A. and Barashi had a simple explanation for any contradictions between the interview and A.'s statements to the police, but that did not change the fact that Katsav's people succeeded in undermining A.'s credibility during their numerous interviews on Monday.
The story began several weeks ago, after Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin contacted Barashi about interviewing A., with Ynet and Sunday Times correspondent Aviram Zino acting as go-between. Barashi claims she refused the request, as she had refused all other requests to interview her client. Colvin told her she would write the article in any event, and wanted to at least meet A., according to Barashi. A. agreed to meet Colvin, and last week A., Barashi, Colvin and Zino met in Room 602 of Tel Aviv's Crown Plaza hotel.
Zino posted an article on Monday describing how A. spoke for three or four hours in English, telling her story. Barashi, however, believed the entire time that the interview was off the record and intended as background material only.
On Saturday, Barashi and Colvin went over the text and deleted certain direct quotations from A. as well as identifying details. Barashi claims that on Sunday morning she was completely surprised to find direct quotes from A.'s interview on several Israeli Web sites.
In the article, which appears on the Sunday Times Web site, A. recounts: "I went into his office with a book I needed to put away. He was sitting at his desk and there's a big wall of books behind him. I was reaching up to put the book away when he came up behind me ... He was behind me in a kind of hug. It was like my hands were tied. He is not a big person but he is strong. I said: 'what are you doing?' My hands were on the table and his hands were over mine on the table. I'm not weak.[But] I had this feeling I never felt before - you can't do anything. Before I even understood, he opened his belt and he pulled up my skirt."
Katsav's media advisers and hangers-on jumped on discrepancies between the version of events in the article and the statements given by A. to the police. They noted that A. had told police she was wearing pants on the day in question and that she had come to Katsav's office to get, not return a book.
Barashi said yesterday the discrepancies resulted from language problems - the interview was conducted in English, which is not the native language of either A. or Barashi - as well as details aimed at keeping A.'s identity secret.
Friends of A. insisted on Monday that her story has never wavered.