Disgraced Ex-Israeli President Moshe Katsav Freed After 5 Years in Prison for Rape
Image by getty images
Disgraced former Israeli president Moshe Katsav, who has been serving a seven-year prison sentence for rape, was on Sunday set for early release after five years behind bars, a parole board order said.
But the release of Katsav has been delayed by at least a week while state prosecutors consider whether to appeal against the parole board’s decision.
Katsav left office in 2007 and was convicted of raping an aide when he was a cabinet minister in the late 1990s. He was also convicted of molesting or sexually harassing two other women employees during his 2000-2007 term as president.
Katsav, a former member of the right-wing Likud party, was jailed in 2011. He had for a long time denied any wrongdoing and was turned down for early release on two previous occasions.
In its decision on Sunday, the board wrote that since the first failed hearing, Katsav had “traveled a long path, had benefited from prison therapy services and had recognized and regretted his actions against the women and the pain he had caused them.”
Katsav’s lawyers told reporters that he broke down in tears after hearing the board’s decision to release him.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
