Last update - 00:00 25/02/2008
High Court to rule Tuesday on appeal to quash Katsav plea bargain
By Tomer Zarchin, Haaretz Correspondents
The High Court of Justice will rule on Tuesday on an appeal to cancel a plea bargain with former president Moshe Katsav, who admitted last year to a string of sexual offenses.
The hearing will be held at 8:45 A.M. High Court President Dorit Beinisch was finding it difficult to achieve majority support for canceling the plea bargain, Channel 10 reported on Sunday.
Though rape and all other charges involving intercourse were dropped, Attorney General Mazuz has said that Katsav's confession to sexual harassment and indecent assault under the plea bargain are tantamount to confessions of sexual involvement with the complainants.
A senior judicial source intimately familiar with the case has said it would be disastrous for the High Court of Justice to intervene in the plea bargain.
If the plea agreement is canceled, the source explained, no lower court would be able to adjudicate the case impartially, in view of the comments made by Supreme Court justices and prejudicial reports in the media, including a key complainant's televised recounting "of stories never mentioned in the interrogation room."
Another obstacle would be the fact that the state told the High Court that this was a borderline case from an evidentiary standpoint.
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