Katsav's attorneys say offenses carry no moral turpitude
Lawyers of former president accused of sex offenses to respond to High Court's injunction against plea bargain, saying his offenses were not crimes of moral turpitude
Former President Moshe Katsav's lawyers will respond on Sunday to the High Court of Justice's injunction against the implementation of the plea bargain given by the state over his sexual offense charges.
Katsav's attorneys, Avigdor Feldman, Avraham Lavi and Zion Amir, will argue that even without the plea bargain, it is unlikely that the former president would have been indicted for rape.
Since 12 prosecutors from the State Prosecutor's Office were involved in the decision to grant Katsav a plea bargain, his attorneys will claim that it was a reasonable decision.
Once the response is filed, the various petitioners against the plea bargain will have 10 days to respond to the attorney general and former president's responses.
The judges will then convene and decide if the injunction should be turned into a final order which would allow the court to intervene in Mazuz's decision not to try the former president for charges more serious than those in the plea bargain.
The state's response that was submitted to the High Court on Thursday read, "The attorney general's stance is that the offenses included in the indictment that was formulated in the plea bargain are of moral turpitude, severe moral turpitude.
"These are sex offenses that were carried out in the most severe circumstances considering the culprit's status, and harassment of a witness – each of these, and certainly all of them put together, carry moral turpitude."
