Moshe Katsav, ex-Israeli president, gets 7 years for rape (VIDEO)

Moshe Katsav, Israel's former president, has been sentenced to seven years in prison on charges he raped a former employee and sexually abused women over many years while holding public office.

Katsav was also ordered to pay fines of about $25,000 and $7,000 to two of his victims.

The scene in court was reportedly dramatic. Katsav, 65, was at first impassive but burst into tears and sobs when the judge announced his sentence, according to AOL News. "You made a mistake," he reportedly shouted at the judges. "It is a lie! The girls know it is a lie!"

The judges, commenting on the severity of the sentence, praised in Israel as a victory for the country's legal system, said rape damages and destroys a person's soul.

Katsav is the highest-ranking Israeli official ever jailed; he reports there May 8.

His lawyers plan to appeal the sentence.

Katsav was president from 2000 to 2007. Born in Iran, he emigrated to Israel as a small boy. According to DPA, he always portrayed himself as a self-made man who rose from poverty to become the youngest mayor of a town in southern Israel, before embarking on a national political career with the right-wing Likud party.

The complains were brought in 2006 and, after a yearlong trial that riveted Israelis, a verdict handed down Dec. 30. The verdict exposed "a pattern of behavior under which Katsav, stubbornly and imposingly, exploited his superior position to pursue sexual and romantic liaisons with office workers," writes Ofira Koopmans of DPA.

"He was convicted of twice raping his former office manager, identified only as 'A', when he was tourism minister in 1998, by luring her to be alone with him under false pretenses. More sexual offenses were attributed to him later in the president's residence."