Last update - 00:00 20/04/2007
Katsav's defense suspects police used wiretaps in probe
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
President Moshe Katsav's defense team suspect the police covertly wiretapped presidential associates during the course of the sexual misconduct investigation, including in the President's Residence.
Katsav's lawyers base the charges on an electronic chip discovered in a telephone device and on the prosecution's request that some evidence gathered in the investigation be declared privileged and not transmitted to the defense.
'If covert wiretaps were used, they broke all the rules,' said a source on the Katsav defense team. According to the source, if Katsav himself was wiretapped then his immunity was violated, since a president discusses work matters on the telephone.
Katsav defense attorneys Zion Amir, Avigdor Feldman and Avraham Lavi will ask the High Court of Justice on Sunday that it order all investigative material be handed over, including anything acquired through wiretaps.
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz and the prosecutors working on the Katsav case have not decided what sentence to recommend should he be convicted. Mazuz's deputy, attorney Raz Nizri, clarified this point yesterday for defense attorneys.
The prosecution is concerned that if the court does not rule quickly on the petition to hand over evidence, Katsav's pre-trial hearing could be postponed from its May 2 date.
The defense team wrote a letter yesterday quoting a Justice Ministry source who reportedly stated that, 'If there is no change in the draft indictment against Katsav, the prosecution will ask the court to sentence the president to jail time.' Nizri called the unattributed comment 'tasteless and groundless. That comment regarding the prosecution's sentencing position is inappropriate and unacceptable; certainly before the hearing and before a final decision to indict has been made.'
After the many accusations the Katsav defense team has
hurled at the prosecution regarding complacency about leaks to the press in the case, the accusing finger is now turned at the defense. 'We were sorry to see,' Nizri wrote to the president's lawyers, 'that you read sections of various communications in the investigation on the TV show 'Fact.' We were also sorry to discover that your communication to us, including details from the investigation and quotes from the draft indictment, were released to the press in parallel.'
Prosecutors say that defense claims that the indictment was changed regarding the date of the first alleged rape of the 'second A'; a former Tourism Ministry employee - should be clarified at a hearing. The prosecution?s filings with the High Court detail the chain of events that led to adding a second rape charge. 'Second A' met with Jerusalem district attorneys at her request on February 15. At that meeting, she told them that; in addition to the rape she had recounted to police detectives; there had been a second rape that took place at Jerusalem?s Plaza Hotel.
At that point, prosecutors cut A off, saying they should not hear details of the incident from her until she had testified about it to police investigators, which she did three days later. The High Court filing explains that prosecutors instructed police to document their meeting with 'second A,' so defense attorneys would know about it.