Rory McCarthy
London
Guadian
Thursday, January 25, 2007
The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, last night called on
the country's president to resign after the attorney general said
he would charge him with rape and other sexual offences.
An hour earlier the president, Moshe Katsav, had given an emotional
news conference broadcast live in which he insisted he was innocent.
Mr Katsav, 61, who has been under investigation since last summer,
offered to stand aside for now but said he would only resign if
he was formally indicted.
However, Mr Olmert began a keynote policy speech last night by
calling on Mr Katsav to go now. "Under these circumstances
there is no doubt in my mind that the president cannot continue
to fulfil his position and he must leave the president's residence,"
Mr Olmert said.
Several MPs also called on Mr Katsav to quit now, saying he should
not mount his defence while holding on to office. On Tuesday,
the office of the attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, said it had
enough evidence to support charges against the president including
rape, harassment, sexual relations involving the abuse of power,
obstruction of justice and illegally accepting gifts. Mr Katsav
is allowed one last hearing before any charge is formally laid.
Yesterday Mr Katsav insisted he should stay on as president and
dismissed the allegations as "poisonous, horrible lies".
"Don't believe the libel, the defamation, the lies. There
is only one truth ... I am the target of one of the worst attacks
in the history of the state of Israel," he said. At one point
during his news conference Mr Katsav singled out one Israeli television
reporter and screamed at him for his coverage of the investigation.
The Iranian-born president implied that the allegations were
the result of racism against Jews from the Middle East. "I
saw myself as a symbol for all those who are not part of the elite
clique born with silver spoons in their mouths ... who believe
that only they can represent the people of Israel," he said.
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