Last update - 00:00 10/10/2007
Katsav's lawyers slam Mazuz for statement made to High Court
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
Lawyers for former president Moshe Katsav have harshly criticized Attorney General Menachem Mazuz for telling the Supreme Court that closing the case against Katsav would "hurt the sense of justice," and for stating that "based on the material, it seemed that Katsav was involved in various sexual offenses."
In a statement ahead of the concluding hearing in the petitions against the Katsav plea bargain scheduled for October 30, Katsav's lawyers accused Mazuz of "loss of a sense of reality" in formulating "the false draft indictment." Attorneys Avigdor Feldan, Tzion Amir and Avi Lavi also wrote "as the attorney general spoke of a 'sense of justice' and 'it seemed,' we hear the roar of the crowd, which needs no other proof but 'it seemed.'" Katsav's attorneys also said "the person responsible" for creating the "binary sense of justice of the public" should also be "responsible for the spoiled fruit it produced."
In response to the prosecution's statement that in any case it would ask the criminal court that would hear Katsav's case to determine that the crimes bore moral turpitude, the lawyers said "since this was not arranged in the plea bargain, this addendum by the district attorney is a late and improper attempt to raise the price of the plea bargain."
Katsav and his lawyers are also asking the High Court to conduct a hearing on their request to lift the gag order on the evidentiary portion of the attorney general's statement. The lawyers claim this material contains evidence exonerating their client that the public should know. "Why should the draft indictment be released by court order and publication of the evidence leading to the extreme change in the draft indictment be prohibited? In this way the idea that Katsav is a rapist and committed sexual acts in abuse of authority is engraved in the public mind and no support is given to the shaky basis for this charge," the lawyers wrote.