RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM, 30 March 2007 — Israeli police yesterday questioned President Moshe Katsav on new allegations by one of the women involved in previous accusations of rape, sexual assault and fraud, a police official said. Katsav underwent more than two hours of questioning at his Jerusalem residence yesterday, Micky Rosenfeld said. He declined to give details on the interrogation. Israeli media said the charge was filed by one of the former female subordinates who have complained against Katsav in the past. Police have said that the new complaint by one of the women had nothing to do with the previous ones.
Israeli Channel 2 portrayed the suspended president fraternizing with criminals and systematically sexually assaulting female employees and then intimidating them into silence. “I would look at him and see a monster,” one former Katsav employee told the Ovda (fact) program. The High Court rejected yesterday a petition calling for the cancellation of police plans to question Katsav about the new sexual assault complained filed against him. The storm surrounding the allegations against the Israeli president had quieted for a number of weeks, but earlier this week, Attorney General Menahem Mazuz announced that Katsav would be questioned again on an additional charge. The Ovda program alleged that journalists had heard rumors of Katsav’s sexual harassment of female employees starting as early as 1990. Journalist Shalom Yerushalmi said that he had been contacted by one female employee who was then ostracized after Katsav found out she had contacted him.
In January, Mazuz announced his intention to indict the president on charges of rape, sexual assault and fraud.
