Katsav investigators present case to Mazuz

Police submit file to Mazuz, who will decide on indictment charges.

By DAN IZENBERG, REBECCA ANNA STOIL
mazuz 248.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
mazuz 248.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
The police team investigating allegations against President Moshe Katsav on Tuesday met with Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz and state attorney Eran Shendar to present evidence they had gathered. The team, headed by Lt.-Cmdr. Yoav Segelovich, who is working under the auspices of the International and Serious Crimes Unit, first met with Shendar and senior Justice Ministry officials and then updated Mazuz. Police sources indicated that the meeting would focus on the allegations of sexual misconduct by Katsav. The police team was expected to say that it had enough evidence to press charges against the president regarding three of the plaintiffs. The statute of limitations applies to the cases of the other four. The police prepared a Powerpoint presentation of the investigation, and were expected to supply the prosecution with a timeline of the alleged incidents and a list of witnesses and evidence. Meanwhile, Mazuz said during a Channel 10 interview that he would not issue an interim report on the investigation as it could undermine it. Asked in the interview whether he believed Katsav's claim that a "gang of criminals" had conspired to bring him down, Mazuz replied, "It is a common argument that suspects raise that someone is plotting against them...but I don't think that is the case here." Katsav's lawyer Zion Amir told The Jerusalem Post he believed Mazuz was talking in general about conspiracies and not specifically about the current investigation. He added that Mazuz has not yet seen all the evidence in the file and that "given the natural sensitivity involved in the investigation of the president, it perhaps would have been better had he not said things that could be misinterpreted by the public." Amir said Katsav stood by his claim that he was the victim of a plot.