Middle East News

Israel's Supreme Court puts ex-president's plea bargain on hold

Jul 25, 2007, 14:31 GMT

Jerusalem - Israel's Supreme Court Wednesday suspended implementation of a controversial plea bargain given to former president Moshe Katsav which dropped rape charges against the 61-year- old politician. Chief Justice Dorit Beinish granted the state 21 days to provide a satisfactory explanation for the discrepancy between an earlier draft indictment, which included charges of rape, and the plea bargain, which Katsav accepted but which did not include the charges. Petitioners against the plea bargain will have an additional 10 days to respond to the state. Under the plea bargain, signed at the end of last month, Katsav will confess to sexual harassment, indecent acts and obstruction of justice and will receive a suspended sentence, rather than jail time or community service. Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz, who was savaged in the media and by the public for agreeing to the deal, has said that had the plea bargain not been struck, Katsav would have been indicted for rape, but there was no guarantee the prosecution could have made the charges stick in court. Other accusations were not included in the plea bargain because of the statute of limitations, he said. The accusations against Katsav concerned acts allegedly committed either when he was tourism minister in the late 1990s, or during his tenure as president, which began in 2000 and ended last month when he resigned in accordance with the plea bargain. Katsav has steadfastly denied the accusations since they first surfaced one year ago and his associates, including his son, said he only signed the plea-bargain to end the suffering his family was undergoing. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

On the Web

Blowing Up Blogs

Place your ad here
Loading...

Your Talkback on this Story

Latest Headlines in Middle East

Older Talkback

page: 1

andJul 25th, 2007 - 15:39:44

'Under the plea bargain, signed at the end of last month, Katsav will confess to sexual harassment, indecent acts and obstruction of justice and will receive a suspended sentence, rather than jail time or community service'

Wow. With the jew what's new. Should be sharing his experiences as a Professor at some jew university. Making money. The jew way after all.

Report this comment

page: 1

Middle East News

Israel's Supreme Court puts ex-president's plea bargain on hold

On the Web

Your Talkback on this Story

Similar articles

Latest Headlines in Middle East

Older Talkback

Like M&C on Facebook

Viral Web

In Monsters and Critics

Corporate

The Fine Print