Last update - 00:00 01/07/2007
In Haaretz interview, prosecutor says gaps in Katsav accuser account
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
Statements by A., the former employee at the President's Residence, were contradicted by other evidence obtained from statements by her friends and even by her own words, Jerusalem District Prosecutor Eli Abarbanel told Haaretz in an interview over the weekend.
A. was the first of at least eight women to accuse Katsav of a range of sexual crimes, including rape, over the last year.
"It's not enough for the complainant to be coherent and organized. A claim of serial behavior is not sufficient," Abarbanel said. "To go to court we need much more."
Abarbanel, who headed the prosecutor's team during the Katsav investigation, backed Attorney General Menachem Mazuz's decision to erase the rape charges from the indictment, as part of a plea agreement signed by Katsav on Thursday.
"A few statements in the press conference A. gave on Thursday were completely new to us. She mentioned things she never said in her questioning by the police, and she was questioned three or four times - not including the more than 15-page letter she wrote at the beginning of the affair. For example, when she said the president shook his sex organ at her and the statement that he asked her to come to work without panties under her skirt."
On January 23 Mazuz announced his intention to indict the president for rape, unlawful sexual intercourse and a number of other serious offenses. Very little is left of the original indictment. What happened to the attorney general in the interim?
"The attorney general simply changed his mind. During this time there was a hearing, and a hearing means that the decision is not final. The attorney general heard the other side and continued with the decision-making process, just as he is supposed to. It was a process of study, thought, of being persuaded and of hearing the other side. All the good things that happen when an administrative decision is made. I want to tell you, a person who cannot change his mind is not fit to make decisions at all. If you want a State Prosecutor's office that only toes the line, that's no good. If you ask about my feelings after the past three days, in addition to unease and concern, I also feel pride about the fact that I work in a place that is so practical and conscientious."
It appears that Mazuz got frightened, perhaps of going all the way against a powerful figure like the state president.
"Mazuz said, 'I don't care what they do to me.' That's Meni Mazuz. You don't really believe that Katsav's people scare him. You have to understand, there is no power on the other side. Today Katsav is the weakest man in the country. It was simply a practical decision on the part of the attorney general, although he knew he would be criticized."
The attorney general spoke about the evidentiary difficulties and the accusations of rape regarding [additional complainant] A. from the Tourism Ministry. Weren't these difficulties known to you even before January 23, when the decision to indict the president on rape charges was made?
"The difficulties were known. There were serious evidentiary difficulties in this case as well, although much less so than those in the matter of A. from the President's Residence. One of the main difficulties touched on the formulation of the rape law as it was in 1998, the year when the events occurred. According to this clause, in order to prove rape the prosecutor had to prove that force was used. Not like today when all that has to be proved is that the intercourse was not consensual. The element of force is not easy to prove. From the version we had, there was no clear-cut use of force or violence. She claimed that he pulled her by the hand to bring her to a certain position." Abarbanel, like his colleagues in the Justice Ministry, said that if Katsav refuses to confess to the acts he is accused of in the final indictment, the plea bargain might be called off. "The accused can't confess and not confess," Abarbanel said. "The moment we heard the first statement from one of Katsav's sons, speaking in the name of his father, we picked up the phone to [Katsav attorney] Tzion Amir and told him 'Listen, it's very simple, if this keeps up the court won't accept the president's confession.'"
Abarbanel said that in the case of a "half-confession" they would revert to the original indictment, containing two rape charges.
You claimed that one of the achievements of the plea bargain was the fact that Katsav had to resign. But Katsav had pledged to resign in any case if an indictment was issued.
"It's true that the element of resignation itself was not an achievement from our perspective. But after the dust settles, the knowledge will remain that in the end Katsav was convicted of sexual offenses. That is no small thing."
Why aren't you prepared to release the draft indictment, so the public can know what Katsav received within the framework of the plea bargain?
"These are things in the realm of the rights of the accused. When a case is closed and facts are dropped from the indictment, they are not published. It is certainly legitimate for the public to ask to see the draft, to monitor the decisions of the State Prosecutor. We should think about this. The public's right to know is more than just mere lip service."