Last update - 00:00 17/07/2007
Judge: Prosecution changed stance on evidence in Katsav sex crimes case
By Arnon Ben-Yair, Haaretz Correspondent
High Court judge Ayala Procaccia said Tuesday that the State Prosecutor's Office had changed its standards regarding the way it assessed evidence in the sex crimes case against Moshe Katsav, during the time between the presentation of the draft indictment in January and the plea bargain agreement reached with the former president in June.
Speaking during a hearing on petitions against the plea bargain, Procaccia also wondered whether the change was justified.
Meanwhile, Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, who presided over the Tuesday hearing, said that the indictment filed against Vice Premier Haim Ramon for indecent behavior was harsher than the terms of the plea bargain struck by Katsav.
Ramon, who at the time held the post of justice minister, was convicted of indecent behavior for forcibly kissing a woman Israel Defense Forces soldier. He was sentenced to 120 hours of community service and ordered to pay his victim NIS 15,000 in compensation.
Under the terms of the plea bargain agreed with Katsav, the former president resigned his post two weeks before his term expired, confessed to sexual harassment, forcible indecent assault and harassing a witness. In return he was to receive a suspended sentence and rape charges were struck from the indictment.
During the hearing on six petitions filed against the Katsav plea deal, Beinisch also instructed the State Prosecution to release the original draft indictment against the former president.
The original indictment requested by Beinisch is said to have included rape charges.
Orna Lin, the lawyer representing a complainant from the Transportation Ministry against Katsav, said during the hearing that the plea deal was so watered down that it did not necessarily show a crime of moral turpitude, and therefore did not prevent Katsav from running for public office in the future. The claims by Lin's client were not included in the charge sheet.
Lin was indirectly referring to a court decision exonerating Ramon from moral turpitude, thereby paving the way for him to return to public office. In response, Beinisch said that "the indictment [against Ramon] was harsher than this one."
In response to ensuing laughter in the courtroom, Beinisch said, "I didn't say anything funny; this indictment is lighter."
Beinisch also wondered aloud whether the plea agreement "even contains sex offenses."
In Tuesday's hearing on the petitions submitted against the plea bargain, Beinisch told the deputy state prosecutor, Shai Nitzan, that High Court judges have not yet seen the draft indictment, and instructed him to submit it.
Nitzan said in response that the draft is not for public viewing, which led the chief justice to point out that not only had Katsav's lawyers seen the draft, but media sources had also leaked its contents in an unofficial manner.
Beinisch headed a five-judge panel at Tuesday's hearing on the petitions. The hearing began with comments by Yehuda Ressler who represents A., the former President's Residence employee who accused Katsav of rape.
Ressler said the decision by Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to supress portions of the draft indictment on A.'s accusations was unreasonable and went against the public interests.
Eliad Shraga, chairman of the Movement for Quality Government, also criticized the plea deal, telling the hearing that despite statements by Mazuz, the plea bargain was not merely "slimmed down," but was in fact "anorexic."
In response to Mazuz's claim that Katsav had expressed regret for his actions in the deal, Shraga pointed out that only hours after it was signed, sources close to Katsav said that there was no regret or claim of responsibility on the part of the former president.
'Inconceivable' differences
Shraga strssed to the court the "inconceivable" differences between the draft indictment and the plea bargain. He said that the plea bargain is rife with "ultra-extreme irrationality."
He also said that Mazuz determined the watered-down charges that would appear in the plea bargain and only afterwards amassed the evidence to back them up.
"What we have here is forcible indecent assault with the factual basis of sexual assault," said Shraga.
"The whole graphic rape of A. in the Tourism Ministry has become a hug around the waist and an attempt to kiss her on the mouth. The second rape has become a caress on the leg during a drive."
Shraga also said that the plea deal ignores an article in the penal law regarding such offenses, which states that the minimum penalty is 21 months in jail. At this point in the discussion, Nitzan turned to Katsav's attorney, Avigdor Feldman, and said, surprised, "How did we not think of that?"
Feldman told the court that the minimum sentence provision did not exist when the offenses were carried out, and Shraga did not object.