Israeli president resigns over sex scandal
Saturday, 30 June 2007
JERUSALEM, June 29 (AFP): Israel's disgraced president Moshe Katsav resigned Friday, one day after signing a controversial plea bargain that will see him convicted of sexual offences but not of initial rape charges.
Katsav, who suspended himself from duty in January over the worst scandal to befall an Israeli leader, sent a letter of resignation by courier to parliament speaker Dalia Itzik Friday, a senior aide to Katsav told the news agency.
His resignation will take effect in 48 hours, when Itzik will be named interim president and the state prosecution will indict Katsav.
The Iranian-born president was forced out of his seven-year term in office some two weeks before Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres is officially sworn in as his successor, having been elected Israel's ninth president this month.
"I wish to end the term of my office two weeks in advance and therefore I announce my resignation," Katsav wrote in the letter to Itzik, according to parliamentary sources.
The 61-year-old father of five Thursday signed a plea bargain under which he admitted to a series of sex offences, including harassment and indecent acts but which dropped two rape charges.
The plea bargain sparked a wave of national outrage.
One of the alleged rape victims, plaintiff "A", said she would lodge an appeal at the high court demanding judges overturn what her lawyer slammed an "amoral" deal "contrary to public interest".
Katsav agreed to a suspended prison sentence and a fine of 11,000 dollars but dodged a possible jail term and rape charges, which appeared in the initial charge sheet which the police handed to the state prosecution last January.
Katsav, who suspended himself from duty in January over the worst scandal to befall an Israeli leader, sent a letter of resignation by courier to parliament speaker Dalia Itzik Friday, a senior aide to Katsav told the news agency.
His resignation will take effect in 48 hours, when Itzik will be named interim president and the state prosecution will indict Katsav.
The Iranian-born president was forced out of his seven-year term in office some two weeks before Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres is officially sworn in as his successor, having been elected Israel's ninth president this month.
"I wish to end the term of my office two weeks in advance and therefore I announce my resignation," Katsav wrote in the letter to Itzik, according to parliamentary sources.
The 61-year-old father of five Thursday signed a plea bargain under which he admitted to a series of sex offences, including harassment and indecent acts but which dropped two rape charges.
The plea bargain sparked a wave of national outrage.
One of the alleged rape victims, plaintiff "A", said she would lodge an appeal at the high court demanding judges overturn what her lawyer slammed an "amoral" deal "contrary to public interest".
Katsav agreed to a suspended prison sentence and a fine of 11,000 dollars but dodged a possible jail term and rape charges, which appeared in the initial charge sheet which the police handed to the state prosecution last January.