Israeli court upholds former President's jail sentence

Israel's Supreme Court has upheld a conviction of rape against former president Moshe Katsav. The justices concurred with the decision of a lower court that convicted Katsav last December and sentenced him in March. Head of state sentenced to be in jail. Katsav is the first in Israeli history. Last December Katsav was convicted by lower courts for twice raping a former aide and sexually harassing two others. The same court in March sentenced him to seven years in prison and a two-year suspended sentence. Katzav's defense attorneys appealed the Supreme Court in May, claiming that the District Court had not given their client a fair shake by disregarding vital testimonies. Although Katsav had consistently denied the charges, the Tel Aviv lower court said his testimony had been "riddled with lies". Miriam Schler, Director of Tel Aviv Rape Crisis Centre, said, "Despite the fact that it’s terribly difficult to prove these cases in the court of law, the court believed everything they had to say and and it gives some sort of encouragement to victims to come forward with their story after they have been offended, sexually raped, sexually assaulted. Especially in cases of men of positions of power who exploit their positions of power in order to abuse people that are subordinate to them." The suprecourt justices have ordered that Katzav report to prison on Dec. 7 to begin serving his sentence. Katzav, 65, who spent his early childhood in an impoverished development town, was the president of Isreal from 2000 to 2007.