Police sources close to the investigation of outgoing president Moshe Katsav found it difficult to understand how Attorney General Menachem Mazuz decided to withdraw serious charges from the indictment as part of a plea bargain.

Throughout the investigation, the police were careful to update Mazuz on all developments on a regular basis.

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At the conclusion of their investigation, following a decision by Mazuz, the police and Justice Ministry published a series of suspicions against the president. These included the rape charges leveled by a woman known as A., whose accusations initiated the Katsav affair.

"There was no reason not to include the investigation materials concerning A., who worked in the President's Office, in the indictment," a police source familiar with the investigation said yesterday.

Mazuz has not informed the police team about the motives behind his decision not to adopt findings in the investigation.

Police sources stressed yesterday that contrary to the image created by Mazuz, the investigation team gathered evidence which supported the allegations that he had raped the employee of the Tourism Ministry.

"In the material collected in the case of A., the Tourism Ministry employee, there was clear evidence that rape was committed. From a legal point of view there was no reason not to include this charge in the indictment of the president," a police source said yesterday.

The police insisted yesterday that they had not received any new evidence from Mazuz's office that would challenge the conclusions of the team of investigators headed by Brigadier General Yoav Segalovich.

"It was a complex investigation, which was carried out according to the highest possible professional standards," a source familiar with the investigation said yesterday.

Contrary to the reports in the media, the police say, the defense attorneys for the president did not offer any new evidence during the hearing held by Mazuz, nor was the evidence collected by the police challenged.