Israel's High Court of Justice rejected Tuesday the petitions filed against former President Moshe Katsav's plea bargain, thus endorsing a deal allowing Katsavto escape rape charges and a possible prison term, local media reported.
A panel of five judges voted 3-2 to reject petitions to overturn last June's plea bargain signed between Katsav and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz. The ruling means that Katsav will avoid any possible jail term.
The court's majority rejected the petition on the ground that the plea bargain "was based on circumstantial evidence" that the petitions failed to substantiate the illegality of the deal.
Attorney Shai Nitzan, the deputy state prosecutor, welcomed the ruling, saying that "the court has endorsed the State's stance on all the major issues."
However, Tal Kramer-Vadai, Executive Director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel reacted to the High Court's decision saying that "this decision will further lessen the tendency of victims to turn to the police."
Katsav, who insists he was the victim of a witch hunt, left office in disgrace in last June after several former female employees accused him of a series of sex crimes, including rape.
Facing indictment, he agreed to a plea bargain that allowed him to avoid the gravest charges and resigned as president after that.
Under the plea bargain, Katsav agreed to plead guilty to sexual harassment, forcible indecent assault and harassing a witness in exchange for dropping the rape charges from the ongoing case against him.
The judges' ruling on the matter was the last procedure in the case, after the High Court's decision in July 2007 to issue an injunction against the plea bargain with the former president.
The court demanded that Mazuz explain the reasons which led to the discrepancies between the plea deal and the draft indictment released several months earlier.
Mazuz's initial draft indictment, which was released in April 2007, included 36 different charges, including rape offenses allegedly committed by Katsav between 1999 and 2000.
Several months later, the Justice Ministry decided to sign a plea bargain with the former president, which charged Katsav with relatively light offenses of "hugging and caressing."
Source: Xinhua
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