Last update - 00:00 03/05/2007
Second Katsav rape hearing on May 17 to determine indictment
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondents
The Justice Ministry will hold a second hearing on May 17 to determine if President Moshe Katsav should be indicted for rape and breach of trust.
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz is also considering ordering the police to further investigate aspects of the case related to new evidence presented by Katsav's attorneys at a three-and-a-half-hour hearing on Wednesday.
An expanded probe could delay Mazuz's final decision on whether to indict the president. Mazuz had previously said he would decide on the indictment within 10 to 14 days of the hearing, as long as the hearing did not involve any legal surprises requiring a reconsideration of the case or additional investigation.
If the indictment decision is delayed until mid-July, Katsav will not need to resign because his term ends then. One of his attorneys has said the president would resign if indicted.
Senior Justice Ministry officials said after the first session of the hearing that "all options are open," including leaving the draft indictment unchanged, revising it and dropping it altogether.
At the beginning of Wednesday's session, Katsav's lawyers Avigdor Feldman, Zion Amir and Avraham Lavie requested several sessions for presenting their argument. They have said the hearing marks the defense team's first opportunity to respond to the evidence in detail and that they aimed to convince Mazuz not to indict Katsav.
Mazuz said he had originally planned to allow one hour for the hearing, but agreed to grant them a second session that can go up to three hours. He said the hearing was a substantive proceeding rather than a formal one and noted that other hearings had convinced him not to charge a suspect he had been planning to indict.
Wednesday's session focused on the sex offenses that Katsav is accused of committing in connection with the two primary complainants, both identified publicly only as A. The president's lawyers presented new evidence they described as "dramatic" on Wednesday. It is now up to the Justice Ministry to determine the weight of the evidence and decide whether they require further police work.
"We think that an analysis of the evidence must lead to a revocation of the charges," said Feldman. Katsav's lawyers said Mazuz and the prosecution appeared attentive to their arguments, and Lavie said they hoped to succeed in convincing Mazuz of the "rightness of our arguments."
Although such hearings sometimes provide a platform for defense attorneys to offer plea bargains or deals to tone down an indictment, Katsav's lawyers have said they do not plan to make any such offers.
A representative of the defense said earlier this week that Katsav's attorneys hoped Mazuz would leave his opinions outside the room and "relate to the arguments in the hearing like someone formulating his position for the first time."
In addition to Mazuz, his assistant and Katsav's attorneys, State Prosecutor Eran Shendar attended the hearing, as did Deputy State Prosecutor Shuki Lemberger. Also attending were the head of the state prosecution's criminal justice department, Efrat Barzilai; Jerusalem district prosecutor Eli Abarbanel; and Irit Baumhorn, who is expected to represent the prosecution if Katsav goes to trial.