Mazuz: Katsav acted like serial sex offender
Following scathing public criticism of resigning president's plea bargain, attorney general attempts to explain decision to drop rape charges. 'The major difficulty we faced is that the majority of offenses were invalid by virtue of the statute of limitations,' he says
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz set out on Saturday evening to defend the State's decision to offer resigning President Moshe Katsav a plea bargain and drop the rape charges from the ongoing case against him. Speaking to Channel 2's 'Meet the Press', Mazuz tried to answer questions asked daily by an ourraged public.
"We met a president and he turned out to be a man who behaved like a serial sexual offender for many years. The chief difficulty we faced is that the majority of the offenses were invalid by virtue of the statute of limitations," he said.
Is it clear to you as the attorney general that the president carried out sexual offenses for years?
"Yes. And here is where we must distinguish between legal and objective realities. The legal truth has a far narrower range. A classic example of this is the statute of limitations," said Mazuz.
Regarding the version put forward by A, one of the key complainants in the case, Mazuz said that his office received investigative materials that confirmed that A, an employ in President's Residence, had maintained an apparent sexual relationship with Katsav.
"We weren't able to establish the evidence necessary to file an indictment in any of these versions. And that's why we decided to close this case," he said.
"From the start it was clear that the evidence in A's case was problematic... The hardest question is whether the sex was consensual or was it exploitive or even rape. Even back in January, the version she gave the police not only lacks any backing, there are a lot of contradictions in it. She contradicts herself and other witnesses. And that includes contradicting what she said here two days ago.
"We knew we had a problematic case and that we'd have to make the difficult decision about whether to pursue rape charges against a backdrop of uncertainty in A's case: "We narrowed down her complaints from very early on, we labeled her case as a problematic one but we felt it would be right to follow through with the investigation," said Mazuz.
"We knew all along we would have to decide on whether or not to pursue rape charges," he said.
'Public misunderstood January announcement'
"Once the option of a plea bargain was put forth a new alternative was created," he said.Mazuz clarified that at the time a there was no draft of any future indictment against the president: "Five months ago I did not release s draft of the indictment. Five months ago I informed the president's representatives that I am considering prosecuting the president of the State.
"The public, I'm afraid, views that announcement in January as a decision we're backing down from now and that is untrue and inaccurate. The decision made in January is an intermediate phase in the decision-making-process. We made no decision to file an indictment in January," he said.
Regarding public voices calling him to resign, Mazuz said: "I don't make decisions according to opinion polls. Ultimately, every prosecutor or every court needs to deal with a case solely according to its legal merits."
"If there wasn't a plea bargain it is highly probable that there would be an indictment with rape charges. Having said this – it would have been an indictment with serious risk," said Mazuz.
"I condemn the depiction of the the affair as though president Katsav got away completely unscathed. I don't know many people who would be willing to take Katsav's place. He will be convicted as a sex offender."
