Last update - 00:00 05/07/2007
Katsav accuser's friend: I heard former president harassing her
By Haaretz Service
A close friend of A., the first woman to accuse former president Moshe Katsav of rape and other sexual offenses, told Channel 2 on Thursday that she had heard Katsav harassing her friend and threatening her.
Katsav last week signed a plea agreement sparing him rape charges after at least 10 women had accused him of sexual harassment and rape over the last year.
The friend said in a televised interview Thursday that A., who then worked at the President's Residence, had come to her apartment in Tel Aviv several times, when she "needed to escape her space."
"In those days she would receive endless phone calls" the friend recounted, saying that Katsav used to shout during those calls, so that she could easily recognize his voice and hear every word spoken.
"He would scream 'get back here, get back here, I will make your life miserable, you hear me?'" the friend said.
She added that the sheer number of calls shocked her and she asked A. about it later. A. responded "he's crazy, he loves me, he's not normal, let it go," the friend said.
After A. told her about the alleged sexual attacks she had suffered, her friend inquired why she hadn't said anything when it began. According to the friend, A. replied that she believed it would stop and "she didn't want to believe it was happening to her." A. even feared for her life saying "if anything happens to me, at least you will know," the friend said.
Katsav's defense team issued a response to these statements, saying the State Prosecutor's Office did not believe A.'s story or those of her friends.
Earlier Thursday, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz submitted to the High Court of Justice his reply to petitions seeking to reverse the plea agreement he had granted the former president. In his reply he wrote though he had in January released a draft indictment with much harsher crimes than Katsav was ultimately charged with, he had not changed his mind on a whim. "This was not an acrobatic flip or a U-turn move." He explained that the new evidence submitted during Katsav's last hearing eroded his previous stance, to indict for rape, and diminished the weight of the original evidence.
Earlier Thursday, the High Court of Justice removed the gag order on the details of A.'s petition to the court, which was filed against the plea bargain reached with former president Moshe Katsav.
Details from the petition reveal that Katsav confidant Uri Yoeli met A. and asked her to be the president's lover.
A. maintains in the petition that she got up from the table in disgust after speaking with Yoeli, said that the offer insults her and left the premises. In another situation, A. entered Katsav's office to return a book, and he pressed against her without her cooperation. She maintains she felt paralyzed and that her life was in danger that same day.
A. also asked in her petition that Mazuz explain why he didn't list sexual attacks in his indictment against Katsav, which she claims happened between 2003-2004.
Last weekm, A. had asked the court to consider prohibiting the publication of the petition, citing the right to privacy and possible damage to the former president and his family.
Mazuz maintains that only the name of the complainant should be kept secret, but emphasized that public interests demand the petition be released so that the public may be exposed to the foundations of the plea bargain.
In the petitions filed at the High Court by civil rights and women's organizations, it was argued that the court must nullify the plea bargain "because of the extreme absence of reason, the damage to the public interest ... and the damage to the principle of equality before the law." The petitioners point to the fact that the attorney general had considered "the conviction of the president on more serious charges likely" but nonetheless "exercised stricter judgment and conditioned the indictment on having a secure outcome or on the near certainty of a conviction."
After a Haaretz request that Mazuz release the original draft of the indictment, in which more serious charges against Katsav are included, was denied, the Movement for Freedom of Information (MFI) filed a similar request with the Justice Ministry.
"There is no clearer example than this for the need of public supervision over the activities of the public prosecution," said Roi Peled, director of MFI. "It is sad that the attorney general has avoided to date giving a detailed explanation for his decision, but he must understand that the public prosecution is not immune to public supervision. If the prosecution is unwilling to reveal the suspicions against Katsav in court, it must at least present them to the public."