Ex-Israeli President convicted of rape
AP
Moshe Katsav (second from right) arriving at the court in Tel Aviv on Thursday
Katsav, 65, faces a minimum of four years and up to 16 years in prison on two counts of rape charges.
On Thursday, the Tel Aviv District Court also convicted him on lesser counts of indecent acts and sexual harassment involving two other women who worked for him when he was president.
Moshe Katsav
Katsav served as a minister in several right-wing Likud governments before he was elected president in 2000.
He claimed he was an innocent victim of a political witch hunt, suggesting he was targeted because he comes from Israel's Sephardic community.
Sephardic Jews, of Middle Eastern origin, were for decades an underclass.
Katsav, the eighth president of the state of Israel, was born in Iran and immigrated to Israel as a child.
According to the indictment, Katsav forced one woman to the floor of his tourism office and raped her in 1998.
A second time the same year, he summoned her to a Jerusalem hotel to go over paperwork and raped her there.
On Katsav's 60th birthday in 2005, an assistant offered congratulations. He then hugged her at length while sniffing her neck.
The conviction by a three-judge panel was widely praised as a victory for Israel's legal system and for women's rights.
"The court sent two clear and sharp messages: that everyone is equal and every woman has the full right to her body," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Katsav resigned in 2007, two weeks before his seven-year term expired, under a plea bargain that would have required him to admit to lesser charges of sexual misconduct.
But in a dramatic reversal in April 2009, Katsav rejected the deal, which would have kept him out of jail, and vowed to clear his name in court.
Former Israeli Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson is currently in prison after being convicted of embezzling more than US$600,000 from a workers union.
Ex- Justice Minister Haim Ramon was convicted in 2007 of forcibly kissing a female soldier.
Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is currently standing trial on corruption charges.
