After rejecting appeals, Supreme Court rejects Katsav's request for a retrial
Justice Neal Hendel says Katsav's claims that he suffered a "distortion of justice" are baseless.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBKatsav supreme court nov 2011(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
After previously rejecting all appeals by former president Moshe Katsav on his 2010 conviction for rape, the Supreme Court on Monday also rejected his newest request – a request for a retrial.Katsav has been serving a seven year sentence in Ma’asiyahu prison in Ramle since December 2011.In his decision, Justice Neal Hendel wrote that the complainant’s testimony about Katsav raping her was credible, whereas the former president’s testimony was not.“The fact that it could not be determined with absolute certainty the exact time that the rape occurred does not in and of itself raise a reasonable doubt and definitely does not represent a distortion of justice that justifies a retrial,” Hendel said.He said that “Katsav based his request on the belief that his conviction was a distortion of justice. However, when he presents his claims one-by-one, it appears that this is in actuality a renewed presentation of what are clearly questions of appeal that have already been examined at length and rejected.”Had Katsav won any of his appeals to a wider panel of justices, he could have been acquitted based on the already-conducted trial.The current motion, filed on October 14, 2013, would have required a complete retrying of the evidence, and was thus, an even more desperate move to find some way to get out of prison.Katsav was convicted of two counts of rape, one count of committing an indecent act using force, one count of committing an indecent act, two counts of sexual harassment, one count of harassing a witness and one count of obstructing justice.
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