Former Israeli President Found Guilty of Rape

Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav has been found, on Thursday, guilty on two counts of rape by a court in Tel Aviv, after being indicted in March 2009 on charges formulated by a woman who accused him of rape.

Moshe Katsav was a president of Israel for seven years and had to resign office in 2007 as a result of the scandal related to the rape accusation.

A woman accused him of raping her while he was the minister of tourism in the 1990s.

The judges believed the allegations formulated by the woman and found him guilty, and thus the former president could be looking at at least four years in jail. It is likely that he will appeal the sentence at Israel’s Supreme Court. The maximum penalty for this kind of crime in Israel is of 16 years.

Katsav was met before the court by women’s rights activists that protested against him.

He denied the charges from the beginning and in 2008 he refused a plea bargain that would have put him in the situation of admitting to sexual misconduct but would have avoid other charges brought against him.

According to the testimony of the woman, Katsav first raped her at the Ministry of Tourism’s office and then in a hotel in Jerusalem, both actions occurring in April 1998.

Judges said that former president’s testimony was filled with lies, and they reminded him that “when a woman says no, she means no.”

There are also other claims of sexual harassment Moshe Katsav must face, formulated by two women who say he harassed them in 2003 and 2005, while he was president of Israel.

The verdict passed on Thursday is, according to Reuters, the gravest conviction against a head of the Jewish state.

In Israel the head of state, though he/she has a ceremonial and representative role, must be an example of morality for the people.