Will Katsav be allowed to serve out prison term under house arrest?
MKs work to introduce legislation that would allow convicted former president to serve out prison term under house arrest on grounds that he may be mistreated by fellow inmates whom he refused to pardon while in office • Katsav set to enter prison on Dec. 7 after High Court rejected his appeal of lower court's conviction on counts of rape, sexual harassment and obstruction of justice.
Gideon Allon
With less than a week to go until former Israeli president Moshe Katsav begins serving his seven-year prison sentence, a group of lawmakers led by Shas MK Nissim Zeem are scrambling to introduce fast-track legislation that would have the convicted former head of state serve out his sentence at home under house arrest. If Katsav goes to prison, they say, he could be subjected to potential abuse by inmates that he refused to pardon during his time as president, and there is also a genuine risk that state security could be harmed if he is forced to disclose sensitive information.
On Thursday, Zeev asked Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) for an emergency meeting of the Knesset's Internal Affairs and Environment Committee. At the meeting, Zeev hopes to introduce a bill that would change the terms of Katsav's imprisonment to effective house arrest, in the former president's native Kiryat Malachi, rather than behind bars.
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Although largely a figurehead, an Israeli president has sole discretion when it comes to issuing pardons and commutations to prisoners. Katsav was found guilty last December of rape of a female employee, which occurred while he was a cabinet minister during the 1990s, as well as sexual harassment of two other women while president from 2000 to 2007 and obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to a seven-year jail term in March, but was allowed to stay out of prison pending his appeal. In early November the Supreme Court upheld his conviction and sentence, making it clear that he would, indeed, be jailed for seven years, but his lawyers have recently said they intend to ask for a second Supreme Court appeal hearing, this time with an extended panel. The Katsav trial marked the first time an Israeli president has ever been put on trial or sent to prison.
Even if the legislation is defeated, Israel's penal code provides for a change of venue in prison sentences if the Minister of Internal Security invokes the necessary procedure and declares Katsav's Kiryat Malachi home as his place of detention. But the conventional wisdom in the Knesset is that Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch (Yisrael Beitenu) will almost surely nip this proposition in the bud by refusing to acquiesce to Katsav's allies.
Israel Hayom has learned that Rivlin, who is currently attending a Jewish National Fund event in Geneva, has already spoken with Zeev and made it clear that he has no plans to consider the legislation unless Zeev files a written request via the proper channels.
Meanwhile, Katsav's associates have reportedly approached Rivlin and asked him to raise the issue of his prison sentence with Aharonovitch and try to convince him to use his legal prerogative to push the house arrest option.
On Thursday, Zeev said he has yet to file an official request with Rivlin's offices, but he will do so on Sunday.
According to Knesset protocol, the Knesset Presidency - a governing body comprising the speaker and his nine deputies - will first have to convene on this matter and hold a vote on whether to allow it to go forward before it arrives at the Knesset committees and plenum for a vote.
According to some reports, sponsors of the bill and its backers in the Knesset have already agreed that if the Knesset Presidency allows the bill to move forward the chairman of the Knesset's Internal Affairs and Environment Committee, Amnon Cohen (Shas), will call a hearing the very same day, or the following day at the latest, in which Aharonovitch would have to appear and address the demands to let Katsav serve his sentence at home in an effort to spare the need to write a new law.
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What do we stand for?
We have become a society that has lost it's principles, if not maybe even our soul.
I am going to lay the fault squarely on the peace process.
Our leaders have turned into liars without principle to twist and turn in an effort to turn the Palestinians into something other than the evil that they are.
We can now see this has destroyed truth, in more than just the area of the Palestinians.
A rapist belongs in prison no matter what he has done in his life prior to the rape.
