VIDEO - A special team of police investigators arrived at the official residence of President Moshe Katsav in Jerusalem at about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday and questioned him under caution for more than seven and-a-half hours as part of the allegation of sexual harassment and suspicions of granting amnesties in exchange for payments.
Knesset Committee Chairwoman Knesset Member Ruhama Avraham called on President Moshe Katsav to save the honor of the presidential institution and take a holiday.
"The president, like every person, has a right to prove their innocence. On the other hand the honor of the presidency should be guarded. During this time… he should go on holiday," she said.
At 8:30 Wednesday morning, the first investigators arrived, and the head of the investigation, Brigadier General Yoav Segalovich, is also set to arrive.
The investigators will interrogate Katsav about the contradictory versions regarding the acts he is suspected of.
A former employee at the President's Office claimed that he had sexually harassed her, while Katsav denied the allegations and claimed that the employee attempted to blackmail him.
Segelovich, heading the investigation is head of financial crimes unit. The investigation committee is composed of five investigators, and is being accompanied by representatives from the state prosecutor's office.
Investigators enter Katsav's residence (Photo: Gil Yochanan)
One of the president's lawyers, Attorney Zion Amir, told Ynet on Tuesday evening that "it is totally clear that the president completely denies any allegation or suspicion of criminal acts. We claim complete innocence."
"The president has no plan to resign and he will fight using all the legal means in order to prove his innocence," Amir said, adding that the president plans to fully cooperate with the investigators.
'Why did secretary ask for her job back?'
Katsav is also represented by Prof. David Libai. Katsav and Libai noted that the president was the one who turned to the attorney general, while the former employee did not file a police complaint against the president and, according to them, even asked for her job back on several occasions.
"If the secretary was indeed harassed and allegedly suffered from the president's behavior, why did she pressure him to take her back to work at his office and why did she shower him with gifts and luxury items?" The lawyers asked.
The two turned to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz and demanded to make public the tape in which they claim the worker is heard trying to blackmail the president, in a bit to refute her version that she was sexually harassed and never tried to blackmail Katsav.
The lawyers claimed that the tape proves that the extortion attempt had nothing to do with sexual relations and that the secretary's version was "imaginary and false."
"The claim of sexual intercourse is a version which was planned later for the purposes of the police investigation in order to provide a distorted and acquitting interpretation to the extortion attempt," the two claimed.
The worker's attorney Kinneret Barashi told Ynet: "I don’t see it fit to respond to the remarks made by the president's experienced attorneys and I am absolutely certain that the police interrogation will lead to uncovering the truth."
Efrat Weiss contributed to the report
First published: 09:32, 08.23.6