Moshe Katsav
Photo: Yariv Katz
Court rejects Katsav's appeal to ease release restrictions
Latest appeal to scrap nightly curfew imposed on convicted rapist and former president as a condition for his early release is shot down yet again, and will continue until official expiration of his prison term in December 2018.
Former Israeli president Moshe Katsav, who was granted early release
in 2016 while serving a prison term for rape, will continue to remain under house arrest at night after an appeal to lift the accompanying release restriction was rejected by the Lod District Court.
By filing the appeal, Katsav, who served five years and 15 days out of his seven-year sentence in the Maasiyahu Prison for rape and indecent acts, was seeking to overturn a decision by the Parole Board.
As part of his definition as a licensed prisoner—a prisoner outside jail—Katsav is forbidden from leaving his home during the evening.
The restriction is included in his terms of release, and is supposed to remain in place until the official conclusion of his prison sentence in December 2018.
Moshe Katsav and attorney Zion Amir at the legal discussions on his curfew (Photo: Yariv Katz)
The State Attorney’s Office opposed Katsav’s appeal to annul the release term on the grounds that the restrictions were standard for prisoners convicted of sexual offenses. It also argued that there was no reason to lighten the restrictions specially for the former president, particularly when taking into account the feelings of his victims.
The appeal was submitted by Katsav’s attorneys Shani Iluz and Zion Amir after a number of failed attempts to secure lighter restrictions.
In August 2017, President Reuven Rivlin rejected a request to cancel the nighttime restriction, and explained that the Parole Board had approved his release based on the fact that it was subject to restrictive conditions and a complex rehabilitation plan that would expire only on the completion of the official sentence.
Katsav with his wife after his release from prison (Photo: AFP)
Given the circumstances, Rivlin reasoned, it would have been unjustified to accede to the cancellation requests.
Katsav’s request was once again tossed out in April 2017 by the Parole Board, and in November the same year, the parole board rejected another request to ease the restrictive conditions.
“You can’t have a reasonably normal life. A person who can’t leave, not for a wedding or a bar mitzvah or just to see a movie, and most importantly, can’t see his wife who underwent an operation, for example, in the hospital,” attorney Amir complained after one of the appeals was thrown out.
