Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously upheld the Tel Aviv District Court’s decision to convict former President Moshe Katsav of two counts of rape and other sexual offenses, and to sentence him to seven years in prison.
Supreme Court Justices Miriam Naor, Edna Arbel and Salim Joubran entered the courtroom at 9 A.M. on Thursday morning and read a summary of their decision to reject Katsav’s appeal of his conviction, unanimously deciding not to intervene in the district court’s ruling.
The court decided Katsav would begin serving his seven-year sentence on December 7.
The Supreme Court justices agreed that Katsav had lied when insisting that his sexual relations with the former Tourism Ministry employee, A., were consensual, thus validating her allegations of rape.