Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the March 22 sentencing of former President Moshe Katsav to seven years in prison is “a day of sadness and shame” for the Jewish state.
“But there is also deep appreciation and pride in the Israeli justice system,” Netanyahu added.
In sentencing Israel’s eighth president on rape and sexual assault charges, a panel of three Tel Aviv district court judges wrote, “The defendant committed the crime and like every other person, he must bear the consequences. No man is above the law.”
The judges’ statement, read in court, continued, “The contention that seeing a former president of the country go to jail is too painful to watch is an emotional argument, but it definitely cannot be accepted as an ethical argument.”
Katsav, 65, reportedly began sobbing, then yelled out several times, interrupting the judges, saying “It’s all lies,” “the sentence is a mistake” and “it’s not true.”
Katsav’s prison sentence is set to begin May 8. He also was ordered to pay more than $28,000 to the rape victim and about $7,000 to the sexual assault victim. He will serve two years of probation after his release from prison. Since he was accused of moral turpitude, he will lose all benefits he was entitled to as a former president. However, he will still retain his monthly pension payment of roughly $12,700. — jta & ynetnews.com