Moments before beginning a seven-year prison term for rape and other sexual offenses, former President Moshe Katsav said Wednesday that he had been sentenced to death on the basis of "impressions" rather than hard evidence. "The bloody battle I have waged incessantly for the last five and half years ends today in frustration and rage," Katsav told reporters outside his home in Kiryat Malachi. "All my acquaintances know the allegations against me aren't true because they know me. The more adamantly I fought for my innocence, the more resistance I faced." "Today, in the state of Israel, a man is executed based on impressions, without evidence. I am being executed even though I was barred from presenting four defense witnesses," he lamented. "The court refused to admit into evidence four logs of real-time events belonging to four different people. The court decided to hold the trial behind closed doors even though the anonymity of the complainants could have been maintained even behind open doors. The court rejected the recommendation of the Jerusalem District prosecutor who suggested closing the case five years ago. A man is being executed for innocently believing the State Prosecutor's Office and the police." "One day the truth will surface," he continued. "There is only one thing worse than convicting a former president and that is incarcerating a grandfather, a former president, who is innocent. I never hurt anyone, and I've treated everyone with equal respect. I am not asking for mercy, I'm asking that you don't blindly believe the verdict. Read the documents of my Supreme Court appeal. My acquittal lies within the secret appeal documents." The charges against Katsav include the rape of a former employee during his term as tourism minister between 1996 and 1999, and sexual harassment of two additional women during his presidency from 2000 to 2007. "Katsav will receive the same treatment as any other prisoner, with no special privileges or rights," Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said. Referring to concerns that prisoners whom Katsav had refused to pardon as president would try to exact vengeance, Aharonovitch said, The necessary steps have been taken to ensure Katsav's safety in the prison." In an interview with Ethan Bronner of the New York Times on Tuesday, Katsav voiced anger and disappointment. Bronner wrote that Katsav, who cried several times during the interview, believes in his innocence, and does not regret what he has done. "When I was president, I received 10,000 pardon requests. They all claimed they had been the victims of injustice. I am so sorry that I immediately rejected those claims. Now I believe that some of them were innocent. Im about to pay the price for something I haven't done. Ive hugged and kissed women, but not in an inappropriate way. Weve become like Saudi Arabia. A hug is a sex offense, Katsav said. Bronner said that when he raised the issue of suicide with Katsav, he rejected the notion outright. Aharonovitch said that it was "a very sad day when a former president is incarcerated. On the other hand, I am proud of our legal and law enforcement systems for ensuring that even a former president, when convicted of serious crimes, receives his punishment in prison. There is a difference between most Israelis' opinion that he belongs in prison and the fact that he is a former president, we must keep that in mind." In recent months Katsav's lawyers suggested to the Supreme Court that the accusers had not proven coercion, implying that Katsav may have admitted to sexual relations with the accuser. But in an interview with the Associated Press Tuesday night, the former president categorically denied any infidelity to Gila, his wife of 42 years. "Gila stands with all her strength behind me," he said. "I was faithful to my wife and I was faithful to my family. And I wish upon my children the same matrimony that Gila and I have had." Mrs. Katsav has not commented publicly on the case, though she often accompanied her husband to court hearings. She was absent from his last appearance before the Supreme Court.
Katsav arrived at Maasiyahu Prison in Ramle Wednesday morning, accompanied by his family and attorneys. After bidding his family goodbye, he was escorted into the prison compound by security guards. As per protocol, Katsav's mental state was to be evaluated by a social worker and prison rules were to be explained to him by an information officer. The psychological evaluation will determine whether Katsav is placed under suicide watch which will entail round the clock monitoring both by a warden and by surveillance cameras. The cameras have already been installed in the bloc he will inhabit, but will not be turned on unless suicidal tendencies are suspected.
Katsav later met the head of the prison's religious wing, to which he has been assigned. Prisoners in the religious wing maintain a devoutly religious lifestyle, studying Torah full time.
The eighth president of Israel was convicted of two counts of rape and sexual assault last December and sentenced to a seven-year jail term in March, but his incarceration was deferred pending his appeal. On Nov. 10, his appeal to the Supreme Court was denied.
Katsav spent his last day before entering prison at home. Friends and family members visited him all morning to offer support and bid him farewell. Last week, former Knesset member and fellow convicted felon Shlomo Benizri visited Katsav while on furlough. Benizri who is serving a four-year prison sentence for accepting bribes, breach of faith, obstructing justice, and conspiracy to commit a crime may end up being Katsav's cell mate in the religious wing of Maasiyahu.
A close friend of the former president said that meeting Benizri had devastated Katsav. "He realized he would not be protected by bodyguards when faced with prisoners he didn't pardon," she said.
Katsav marked his 66th birthday this week, but a friend said he was "not in the mood to celebrate and he's beginning to accept the fact that he's about to enter prison." One of the prisoners who visited him described daily life in the religious wing, leaving the former president shocked. "He actually cried, realizing that he would not see his grandchildren for a long time. That's mainly what got to him," the friend said.
Wing 8, the Maasiyahu religious wing, was scrubbed clean from top to bottom ahead of the arrival of its newest prisoner. "This wing has never looked so clean and orderly," the prisoners remarked. The current inhabitants of the wing were warned not to gather around Katsav immediately upon his arrival and not to bombard him with questions. They were asked to give him "breathing room" and time to adjust.
The wing was recently renovated in anticipation of the former president, and cameras were installed. One of the prisoners said that a motion detector was also installed in the shower of Block 1 where Katsav may share a cell with Benizri that will go off if it fails to sense motion for more than a minute. "They installed it just recently, to prevent him from committing suicide," the prisoner said.
"It's the only thing anyone's been talking about around here," another prisoner said. "Even Benizri said last week that he felt sorry for Katsav. It's not every day that a man of his stature arrives in prison, certainly not a president." The prisoners also said that there were no prisoners whose pardons Katsav denied in the religious wing.
Katsav said he will "definitely continue fighting for my innocence" but would not say whether he intended to ask his successor, President Shimon Peres, for a pardon.
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