A. from the Tourism Ministry, whom Israel's former President Moshe Katsav was found guilty of raping, does not feel one ounce of schadenfreude on this day. The length of his sentence was not as important to her as the fact that he was convicted and she herself was vindicated as having spoken the truth throughout. This is what she keeps saying to me. Still, the day Katsav enters prison is a day when average Israeli citizens understand that everyone is equal before the law. Citizens will know that the Israeli justice system practices the principle of "you shall not show partiality" and no one is exalted or above the law. A. wishes to put this affair behind her and get on with her life. She started to pick up the pieces even before licking her wounds. She gathered her strength and returned to work in her field. She has also devoted herself with renewed vigor to her family. Anonymity is very important to her. "It's important for me to get back into a routine and remain anonymous," she says over and over. The only time she approached the media was during discussions over a possible plea bargain, when she wanted to speak her piece clearly. When the sentence was handed down, she felt the need to hear the Supreme Court ratify her version of events as the unvarnished truth. Katsav and his battery of lawyers slandered her, but it's all over now and the truth has come out. The court pronounced its judgment, Katsav entered jail, the women have gone back to their lives, and how much more of this filth can one stand? Even when people mentioned Katsav serving his sentence under house arrest, she said she didn't care. What matters to her is not the number of years he will spend in jail as much as the fact that he was convicted. "Four, seven or 10 years, it doesn't matter. What matters is that the man who victimized me was convicted and I was found to be speaking the absolute truth," she said. A. feels that justice has been served. "I feel relieved. I have received justice," she told me. As a good friend, I saw the whole process unfold. At the end of the day the person we have to thank for this entire affair is a different A., from the President's Residence, whose testimony never entered the indictment. Without her there would have been no Katsav affair. My friend A. from the Tourism Ministry always said she could never have been the first woman to come forward. It's not easy to set out against such an elevated personage, against Israel's no. 1 citizen. The justice system doesn't always go your way. A. is definitely not the one who set the wheels of justice turning. And at the end of the day, she feels no sense of joy at Katsav's misery. The writer is a friend of A. from the Tourism Ministry and was a witness in the trial.
The victim speaks
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