Moshe Katsav, a former President of Israel will be indicted for rape and sexual assault; the Attorney General announced on Monday March 9th. In a press conference held on Thursday, Katsav has lashed out at the Attorney General, Menachem Mazuz, many members of the law enforcement community and the political establishment as well as the women who have filed sexual assault charges against him. Katsav argued that, “institutions of the state have joined together against me on the basis of false testimony, contradictory facts, lies, fabricated evidence and, above all, baseless rumours.”

Mr. Katsav was President of Israel from 2000 to 2007, he held the tourism portfolio prior to that.  This is the latest in a scandal which began in 2006 when Katsav claimed a former employee was attempting to blackmail him, after the woman came forward and said that Katsav had sexually assaulted her while she was his secretary in the 1990’s a stream of other women came forward. The final allegation of sexual assault in 2007 caused him to step down as President and as a member of the Likud party. This has been the largest controversy involving any Israeli politician in the nations history.

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