Sources say interview with Sunday Times contradicts police testimony.
By JPOST.COM STAFFkatsav angry as hell 248 88(photo credit: AP)
Sources close to President Moshe Katsav claimed on Monday that an interview published Sunday in Britain's Sunday Times with the president's main accuser, "A.", was in direct contradiction to the young woman's police testimony.
According to the sources, the glaring difference between the interview, in which A. described in graphic detail how the president - then minister of tourism - allegedly raped her while she was working in his office between 1998 and 1999, and the testimony she gave police, was based primarily on A.'s clothing.
Katsav accuser details the attack
In the Sunday Times story, A. described herself as wearing a skirt. "Before I even understood, he opened his belt and he pulled up my skirt," she told the British newspaper. However, in the police testimony, she was described as wearing pants.
Sources close to the president claimed this was not the only inconsistency between the two versions, insisting that this latest development called A.'s credibility into question. They called on police to read the interview and compare it carefully with the original testimony.
Meanwhile, A.'s attorney, Kinneret Barashi, reportedly denied that any such interview had taken place with the London paper.
Barashi said in an interview with Army Radio on Monday morning that she herself had spoken with the Sunday Times regarding comments made by Katsav's brother, Lior Katsav, but that any quotes attributed to A. had been put in Sunday's article at the reporter's own discretion.
She added that all of the quotes in the article had been published in the Israeli press at some earlier date.
