Calls grow for Katsav to resign over rape

JERUSALEM – Israeli President Moshe Katsav faced widespread calls to resign yesterday after the attorney general announced he would indict him for rape and other charges, the most serious allegations ever levelled against an Israeli leader.

“Resign,” read a banner headline in the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily, echoing calls in other media and across the political spectrum for the president to step down from his largely ceremonial post. Katsav was due to hold a press conference later yesterday, a day after Attorney General Menahem Mazuz said he intended to indict the 61-year-old married father of five with rape, sexual harassment, breach of trust and accepting bribes.”After examining all the available evidence, the attorney general has reached the conclusion that there is sufficient alleged evidence to file an indictment against the president,” the justice ministry said on Tuesday.A final decision on the indictment will be made only after a hearing, where Katsav will be allowed to present his case.Katsav has denied the charges and vowed to fight the allegations.He has steadfastly refused to step down during the months of investigation against him, saying he was the victim of a “witch-hunt”.But Israeli media, politicians and the public were nearly unanimous in their opinion that Katsav should go.”Someone should explain to the honoured president that he should go home,” wrote the second-largest daily, Maariv.”Release his grasp on the trappings of power, pack his bags and take his leave of the president’s residence in Jerusalem as quickly as possible.””He should resign as he has no right to leave us in this situation,” Yossi Beilin, chief of the left-leaning Meretz party, told public radio.”As a society, we have the right to tell him that he is no longer our president and that his portrait can no longer be hung in schools.”Said Guidon Saar of the right-wing Likud opposition party in parliament said: “The president must resign.Period.And I hope that he will take such a decision within the upcoming hours.If not, the ball will be in Knesset’s court, which should fire him.”Meanwhile a poll published in Yediot showed that a staggering 79 percent of Israelis had little or no confidence in the Iranian-born Katsav, who was elected by MPs in the Knesset to his post in 2000.Katsav’s lawyer said the president will fight to prove his innocence.Nampa-AFPKatsav was due to hold a press conference later yesterday, a day after Attorney General Menahem Mazuz said he intended to indict the 61-year-old married father of five with rape, sexual harassment, breach of trust and accepting bribes.”After examining all the available evidence, the attorney general has reached the conclusion that there is sufficient alleged evidence to file an indictment against the president,” the justice ministry said on Tuesday.A final decision on the indictment will be made only after a hearing, where Katsav will be allowed to present his case.Katsav has denied the charges and vowed to fight the allegations.He has steadfastly refused to step down during the months of investigation against him, saying he was the victim of a “witch-hunt”.But Israeli media, politicians and the public were nearly unanimous in their opinion that Katsav should go.”Someone should explain to the honoured president that he should go home,” wrote the second-largest daily, Maariv.”Release his grasp on the trappings of power, pack his bags and take his leave of the president’s residence in Jerusalem as quickly as possible.””He should resign as he has no right to leave us in this situation,” Yossi Beilin, chief of the left-leaning Meretz party, told public radio.”As a society, we have the right to tell him that he is no longer our president and that his portrait can no longer be hung in schools.”Said Guidon Saar of the right-wing Likud opposition party in parliament said: “The president must resign.Period.And I hope that he will take such a decision within the upcoming hours.If not, the ball will be in Knesset’s court, which should fire him.”Meanwhile a poll published in Yediot showed that a staggering 79 percent of Israelis had little or no confidence in the Iranian-born Katsav, who was elected by MPs in the Knesset to his post in 2000.Katsav’s lawyer said the president will fight to prove his innocence.Nampa-AFP