Ruling paves way for 4-day-a-week trial starting Sept. in sexual crimes case against ex-president.
By JPOST.COM STAFFkatsav trial first day 248.88(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimksi)
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a Tel Aviv District Court ruling forbidding former president Moshe Katsav's lawyers from resigning, paving the way for a four-day-a-week trial in the sexual crimes case.
"From now on, all involved parties, including defense teams, will know that they must plan ahead on the assumption that cases will have a continuous flow until their conclusions," Supreme Court justices Asher Gronis, Esther Hayut and Yoram Danzinger stated in their ruling.
The lawyers, Zion Amir, Avigdor Feldman and Avraham Lavie, submitted their resignations at the start of June, saying that they could not accept the court's demand to hold hearings four days a week, beginning September 1.
They also accused the judges presiding over his trial of thinking they were in an "arm-wrestling match" with the defense, and charged that the court had spoken insultingly to them and that it had been unwilling even to hear their arguments on this issue.
The indictment against Katsav includes two counts of rape against former employees, two charges of committing an indecent act, two charges of sexual harassment and one charge each of harassing a witness and obstructing justice.
