Reversible resignation

Haste to change law in wake of presidential scandal uncalled for

Reuters | Published: 10.19.06, 12:38

On December 18, 2000, the 15th Knesset fleetingly approved three readings calling for the amendment of Basic Law: The Government – which had a contradictory purpose.

The bill was submitted to enable Benjamin Netanyahu to run for the premiership without being a Knesset member, while also preventing his candidacy.

Many justifiably criticized this move; because of the speed in which it was passed and because the amendment was made for the sake of a single person.

Now the 17th Knesset is being called upon to quickly make a similar amendment to clause 14 in Basic Law: The President – relating to Moshe Katsav.

This clause, which states that the president cannot stand criminal trial, is somewhat strange. It's easy to see that its legislator didn't rely on the integrity of any future president and prepared for such an eventuality in advance.

It's hard to understand how this superficial solution of automatic immunity was chosen. Why didn't it state what would transpire in the event that the attorney general, in wake of evidence accumulated by the police, would decide to prosecute him?

Moshe Katsav could spare the system the embarrassment by submitting his resignation and not by suspending his term in office; even a suspended president can't be prosecuted. In fact, the president is not in a hurry to punish himself and Israeli society also has good reason to expect that he would not do so.

It is indeed a grave matter that the person representing the head of the State is suspected of rape and other serious offenses following wide scale police investigations. The pages on which the president's term in office will be chronicled, if indeed he is charged with all or some of these offenses, will be stained black.

Speedy action needed

However, public interest obliges us, even now, to maintain a status of "innocent until proven guilty" and recognize the uniqueness of the hearing. Moshe Katsav is innocent until proven guilty just like any other citizen, and a verdict in any functional democracy is solely the authority of the court. It is not the authority of police investigators, the attorney general or anyone else.

The issue at hand is the verdict and the sentence. The president's resignation according to the current law is an irreversible act, and therefore it is a punishment inflicted prior to being brought to trial.

This will not be the case if Basic Law: The President is amended. If it is drafted as saying that in the event that the attorney general recommends indicting the president, the president can resign on probation.

Namely, the president's resignation can be reversed if the court rules that the suspect is innocent. Naturally, such an amendment would require that the trial be conducted without delay and election of a new president will only take place at the end of the court proceedings, if it ends with a conviction.

All that is transpiring at and around the presidential residence is somewhat somber. But the alternatives are distorted solutions such as those that bred the recent swearing-in ceremony of Justices Beinish and Rivlin to the Supreme Court or the undermining of the rule of law.

Speedy action taken by the Knesset could prevent these two alternatives. In its wake, the call for Moshe Katsav to resign and stand trail would make more sense.