Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav will learn on March 22 whether he will go to jail on a rape conviction in a case that has already made history in Israel. The former head of state is the highest-ranking Israeli official ever to be convicted of a crime. He faces up to 16 years in prison.
His conviction was seen as a victory for women’s rights in a decades-long struggle to chip away at the nation’s macho culture, which once permitted political and military leaders great liberties.
Katsav was convicted in December of two counts of raping an employee when he was tourism minister in 1998. The court also convicted him of sexual harassment against two other women who worked for him when he was president, from 2000 to 2007.
Details surfaced in 2006 when Katsav complained that a female employee was trying to blackmail him. The woman went to police with her side of the story, listing a series of alleged sexual assaults. Other women later came forward with other complaints of sexual abuse by Katsav. Public pressure forced him to resign in 2007, two weeks before the end of his term, under a plea bargain that would have made him admit to lesser charges of sexual misconduct. Katsav later rejected the deal, vowing to clear his name in court. He was replaced by Shimon Peres. He has mostly retreated to his home since he was convicted.