Former Israeli president Katsav loses rape appeal
Former Israeli president Moshe Katsav arrives at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem for the reading of his sentence after appealing his conviction for rape and other sexual assault charges on November 10, 2011.
Israel's Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the rape conviction of former president Moshe Katsav, who was sentenced to seven years.
The three justices on Thursday rejected "alternative scenarios" put forward by Katsav, and ruled that he was guilty of rape, Israel's army radio reported.
In August, Katsav, 65, appealed against his conviction in December, 2010, on charges of raping a former employee in the 1990s, when he was a minister, and the sexual assault of two women during his presidential tenure between 2000 and 2007.
Read more on GlobalPost: Moshe Katsav, ex-Israeli president, gets 7 years for rape (VIDEO)
Throughout his trial, Katsav, who resigned as president in 2007, was portrayed as a sexual predator who routinely harassed female staff, Al Jazeera reported.
He denied the charges, claiming he was the target of a media plot.
In March Katsav was sentenced to seven years in prison, as well as a two-year suspended sentence, and ordered to pay compensation of $28,000 to the main victim, along with $7,000 to a second victim.
In 2008, Katsav reneged on a plea bargain under which he could have avoided rape charges and a possible jail term, in exchange for admitting lesser sexual offenses, Reuters reported.
He is the first former Israeli head of state to be jailed, and will begin his sentence on December 7.
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