Last update - 00:00 01/07/2007
'Katsav must fully confess'
By Yuval Yoaz
President Moshe Katsav could face a harsher indictment unless he unequivocally admits before the court to committing forcible indecent assault and sexual harassment, as stated in his current indictment, Katsav defense attorney Avigdor Feldman said in an interview with Haaretz yesterday.
Feldman decided to warn his client via the media following comments over the weekend from the outgoing president's associates, who said Katsav's motives for admitting the offenses were not rooted in guilt but stemmed from his desire "to end the affair" and protect his family.
Last week, President Katsav - who holds the highest ceremonial post in Israel - decided to sign a plea bargain with the attorney general. In the deal, the prosecution dropped two counts of rape.
"It's up to the president. If he feels that he has been cornered into admitting, then he should tell this to the court. This will result in the resumption of the initial legal process. This, in turn, will mean that the plea bargain will be nixed," Feldman said.
Feldman, who is one of Israel's most accomplished and renowned lawyers, added that he did not think the president will opt to cancel the arrangement. "I do not think that the president is playing games. He admitted, and his admission was unequivocal."
Before Katsav agreed to the plea bargain, his defense team had claimed that the allegations he was facing for sexual offenses were "lies and fibs." In the interview yesterday, Feldman explained that the statements applied mostly to the rape charges. "In principle, the definition of crimes as sexual is a legal decision. The president's actions were not distinctly sexual, and they can be construed either way," Feldman said.
He added that in denying allegations regarding sexual offenses, the president was referring to the rape charges. "The president did not refer to kissing or hugging. He was talking about rape and nonconsensual sex, which are distinctly sexual acts."
Feldman called the attorney general's initial draft for the indictment against Katsav an unrealistic legal document. "The indictment we received on January 23 was, in my opinion, unworthy. In retrospect, it was Attorney General Menachem Mazuz's gravest error. The prosecution sought an impossible indictment, and I realized this as soon as I started reviewing the material."
According to Feldman, the version the chief complainant against Katsav provided was not solid enough to hold up in court. "Her version was problematic, complicated by much conflicting evidence. The prosecution could not even hope to achieve a conviction based on her version. I understand the prosecution wanted to include her in the indictment, as the person who exposed the whole affair. Still, it was an error," Feldman said.
Feldman described the prosecution's decision to include rape in the indictment as misguided. "The prosecution had a problem. The statute of limitations applied to all the counts except for rape. So they couldn't prosecute the president for abuse of authority."
Speaking both as a private citizen and a litigator, Feldman said he felt that the judicial system was handling Katsav's case with fairness. "The hearing stage received all the importance it deserved. I should be so lucky as to see the court so attentive in other cases. The case received the system's full attention, without prejudice, and I think that made all the difference," he said.
"I can't tell you that we achieved absolute justice here. It was relative justice that we achieved through compromise."