President Moshe Katsav's lawyers are going to claim that all the evidence against Katsav was illegally obtained and is therefore inadmissible.

Attorneys Avigdor Feldman and Zion Amir will say at Katsav's hearing with Attorney General Menachem Mazuz in early May and at the trial, that the evidence was obtained in violation of presidential immunity and should therefore be thrown out.

Feldman said the police breached the president's immunity in one of their many interviews with him. On August 23, 2006, the detectives asked Katsav if they could see documents and computer material they had seized two days earlier, and he agreed. The police used this agreement in subsequent requests to the court to issue search warrants and seizure warrants during the investigation.

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"The complete immunity granted to the state's president was breached," Feldman said. "The investigation dealt with pardons, managing the President's Residence and the secret wire tapping, [all of which are] part of the president's duties and are covered by his complete immunity."

The lawyers intend to anchor their demand to throw out all the evidence against Katsav in a Supreme Court precedent-setting case a year ago. The court ruled that it was authorized to disqualify illegally obtained evidence, determining it inadmissible in a legal trial.

This refers, for example, to evidence obtained in an illegal search, or while failing to notify a suspect of his right to remain silent or to consult a lawyer, or during violent interrogation.

Katsav's attorneys say that the Basic Law: State President grants the president immunity from "criminal trial," which they say applies to the entire criminal procedure, from the moment the complaint is submitted to the police and the opening of the investigation, not merely from the moment of indictment.

Therefore, the search of his office and seizing of his papers and computer documents, which took place before he was asked to let the police see them, violated his immunity. As such, the evidence obtained therein was inadmissible.

"The police had no right to conduct an investigation against the president," the lawyers wrote to the High Court of Justice last week.

However, if the demand to throw out the evidence against Katsav is rejected, Feldman and Amir will still try to persuade Mazuz not to indict Katsav.

Mazuz believes that the president's immunity precludes indicting him during his term, but does not preclude conducting a criminal probe and hearing and serving an indictment during his term.

Katsav's attorneys told the High Court on Wednesday that the president would resign immediately if Mazuz insisted on indicting him after the hearing.

The Justice Ministry refused to comment on Katsav's attorneys' demand to throw out the evidence against the president.

A Mazuz aide said Wednesday that the attorney general would decide whether to indict the first complainant against Katsav on blackmail charges only after the hearing for Katsav.