Israel's disgraced former president Moshe Katsav on Wednesday began a seven-year jail sentence after being convicted on two counts of rape and other sexual offences. The former head of state, who turned 66 on Monday, entered Ma'asiyahu prison near Tel Aviv shortly after 10.00 am (0800 GMT), an AFP correspondent outside the jail said.
He was convicted in December 2010 of two counts of rape, sexual harassment, indecent acts and obstruction of justice after an 18-month trial which included harrowing accusations, and portrayed him as a sexual predator who routinely harassed his female staff. Katsav appealed both his conviction and sentence but last month justices at Israel's Supreme Court rejected the appeal and ordered that he start his prison term on December 7.
Speaking to reporters as he left his home in Kiryat Malachi south of Tel Aviv, Katsav continued to maintain his innocence as he had throughout the trial. "Today the state of Israel is taking a man out to execute him on the basis of impressions, without evidence," he said, dressed in a black suit and white shirt. "One day the truth will be revealed," he said. "The state is imprisoning a grandfather of grandchildren, a former president. I never hurt anyone, I treated everyone with respect." Israel, he charged, was "burying a man alive."
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