Former Israeli president sentenced to 7-year in prison for rape

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Former Israeli president sentenced to 7-year in prison for rape

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Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav was sentenced to seven years in jail for rape.

22 March,2011 08:50 pm

Katsav had denied charges he twice raped an aide when he was a cabinet minister in the late 1990s, and molested or sexually harassed two other women who worked for him during his 2000-2007 term as president. After the verdict, Katsavs lawyer Zion Amir said that this was a sad day, a day of mourning, for Israeli society, including the punishment imposed today.Katsav, 65, was also convicted of obstructing justice, for trying to confer with one complainant about her testimony to police. Netanyahu said at the time the verdict showed that all are equal before the law. But a three-judge panel said on convicting him in December that his testimony had been riddled with lies.Katsav, who is religiously observant, had cast himself as the victim of extortion and an ethnically-motivated witch hunt. Katsav immigrated with his family to Israel in 1951. At the age of 24 he became the countrys youngest mayor and went on to hold a number of Likud cabinet posts.