Rapist ex-president Moshe Katsav denied early release
Parole board will reconsider freeing disgraced politician after he completes 6-month rehabilitation
Tamar Pileggi is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
For the second time this year, an Israel Prisons Service parole board on Thursday rejected a plea for the early release of former president and convicted rapist Moshe Katsav, the Israeli court system said.
After deliberating for over two hours, the Israel Prisons parole board voted to turn down Katsav’s request.
The board ruled the 70-year-old former president will be eligible to file a new request for commutation after he completes six months of in-prison rehabilitation.
Tzion Amir, Katsav’s attorney, told reporters outside the prison that it was a “very hard day, a very sad day,” and vowed to appeal the decision.
Amir blamed activists, including female Knesset members, for the parole board decision, suggesting the lawmakers intervened to prevent the ex-president’s release.
In a unanimous decision, the board acknowledged that it had observed “seeds” of repentance in Katsav, who has throughout his incarceration professed his innocence.
An internal prison evaluation presented to the board said that “our impression was that there are initial signs of understanding of his personality flaws, which led him to take advantage of others, harm them, and use his power while serving in a role of power and authority. In our view, this marks a change — even if minimal — from our earlier assessments.”
The prison evaluation quoted Katsav as saying: “I no longer want to prove my innocence, I have no strength to wage a campaign… I’m not waging a campaign… I’m tired, I have no strength for anything.”
The parole board wrote that based on the evaluation and Katsav’s testimony, “those first seeds [of change] were seen” by members of the board.
“However, in the opinion of the parole board, the prisoner’s process [of repentance] has not been completed and he still needs to refine and deepen this [awareness],” the decision said.
Katsav has served five years of a seven-year sentence, and in recent months has been seeking to have his jail time reduced by one-third for good behavior.
Katsav was denied parole in April after the rehabilitation authority and state prosecutors recommended against it. At the time, the Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority told the parole board Katsav had not acknowledged or expressed remorse for his crimes, showed no empathy for his victims, and saw himself as the victim in the case, while state prosecutors noted Katsav had not participated in any rehabilitative programs offered by the prison.
Diverging from its stance on Katsav’s previous request for commutation, this time the Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority and State Attorney’s Office did not oppose the early release of the ex-president.
The Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority reversed its recommendation in July, following a meeting with Katsav. According to a report in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily, the former president agreed to a rehabilitation regimen after his release that would include religious study, regular meetings with social workers, and a commitment to not besmirch his victims.
Another of Katsav’s lawyers, Yehoshua Reznik, last month would not say whether his client had assumed responsibility or expressed regret for his crimes. Reznik and Katsav’s family reportedly told him to cooperate with the demands of social workers, after Katsav had insisted for years that he did not require therapy or rehabilitation.
At the time of the revised recommendation , one of Katsav’s victims slammed the idea, suggesting political pressure was behind the new call to free the former president. If he goes free, “it would be unprecedented in Israel, and would send a very negative message, both about women and about sex offenders,” Odelia Carmon, who was assaulted by Katsav in the early 1990s, said in a July interview with Army Radio.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
