Israeli MPs grant President Moshe Katsav leave over rape charge

JERUSALEM: Israeli lawmakers on Thursday approved President Moshe Katsav's request for a leave of absence because of a looming indictment against the head of state for rape and sexual harassment.   

After more than four hours of debate, a Knesset committee approved by a vote of 13 to 11 that Katsav be suspended from office for three months because of the allegations, the most serious ever levelled against an Israeli leader.   

"The president's request for leave was accepted," committee chairwoman Ruhama Avraham said. "From this moment the president is temporarily suspended. He can no longer exercise his powers."   

Parliament speaker Dalia Yitzik of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's centrist Kadima party becomes interim president, Avraham said, making her the Jewish state's first female head of state.   

The leave of absence allows Katsav, an Iranian-born father of five who has vehemently denied the charges against him a witch-hunt, to retain presidential immunity from prosecution. His seven-year term runs out in late July.   

Katsav, 61, requested the leave after attorney general Menachem Mazuz said on Tuesday that he intended to indict him on charges of raping a female employee when he was tourism minister, sexual harassment, abuse of power, breach of trust and accepting bribes.   

The formal decision to charge him, considered a formality, will be made after a hearing when Katsav will be allowed to defend himself. Should he be convicted, Katsav risks up to 16 years in prison on the rape charge alone.   

The committee's vote was slammed by the opposition Meretz party, which had on Wednesday gathered 30 signatures from MPs to launch impeachment proceedings against the president.   

"This vote is a stain on parliament, which rewards a man accused of rape instead of sending him to prison," Zahava Galon, chief of the Meretz parliamentary bloc, said.   

On Wednesday, an emotional Katsav said he was a victim of blackmail and a witch-hunt by the media, vowed to clear his name and refused mounting calls to resign.   

"The law does not oblige me to resign," a visibly heated Katsav told a news conference, lashing out at his accusers. "I will not give in to blackmail."   

Olmert -- himself facing a criminal corruption probe -- added his voice to the growing chorus urging Katsav to resign, saying late on Wednesday that Katsav "will have to leave the presidency."   

Opinion polls released on Thursday showed between 66 per cent and 71 per cent of Israelis want Katsav, the Jewish state's first president from a right-wing party, to quit over the scandal.   

The unprecedented action against an Israeli head of state comes amid a spate of corruption allegations against leading politicians.   

Katsav repeatedly maintained his innocence at Wednesday's press conference as his tearful wife and children looked on.   

"I will not hang my head and I will defend my honour," he said, alleging that his accusers were taking revenge for not being hired at the presidency.   

"I was the victim of a shameful plot, a brainwashing by the media," he said. "I was the victim of a witch-hunt... and the police followed the media."   

Katsav is due to be charged with raping a woman employee at the tourism ministry where he was minister in the late 1990s. He will also face separate charges of sexually harassing three other women staff at the presidential residence in Jerusalem, as well as numerous other charges including graft, abuse of power, breach of trust and obstructing investigations into his activities.   

Katsav rose from impoverished beginnings at an immigrant tent camp to assume Israel's top job after serving in the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu.   

He was elected president in 2000 after a shock win over Nobel peace laureate and former premier Shimon Peres, who is among the leading contenders to replace Katsav should he be forced out.