Israeli ex-president Katsav's request to lift parole terms is rejected

Israeli ex-president Moshe Katsav, jailed for rape and released in December, was denied in his request to have the conditions of his parole lifted, an official said on Sunday.

Katsav had appealed to current President Reuven Rivlin to have the terms scrapped after a parole board rejected his request for an easing of the conditions.

Katsav was released from prison in December, after serving five years of a seven-year term for rape.

Rivlin noted in a statement that Katsav was released early on condition that he take part in a rehabilitation programme and refrain from giving interviews for two years.

He was also banned from travelling abroad and had to respect an overnight curfew when he had to be home from 10pm to 6am.

Katsav agreed to all these conditions essentially because he wanted to go home, but he did not want to be saddled with them for another two years, the Jerusalem Post said. In permitting Katsav's early release, the Parole Board conceded that he had come a long way, but said that he still has a long way to go.

"Taking into consideration the nature of his felonies, there is no room to acquiesce to his request to cancel these conditions," a statement from Rivlin's office read.

Rivlin did not want to cause additional aggravation and hurt to Katsav’s victims, the Jerusalem Post reported. Rivlin’s predecessor in office, the late president Shimon Peres, declared on many occasions that he would never be lenient with sex offenders, and Rivlin is inclined towards the same attitude.

Katsav, 71, was convicted in December 2010 of two counts of rape, sexual harassment, indecent acts and obstruction of justice.

The Iran-born bureaucrat, who rose from impoverished origins as a child immigrant, resigned from the largely ceremonial role of president in June 2007 and became a political outcast.

When he entered prison in December 2011, he became the first former president to be jailed in Israel since its creation in 1948.

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert began a prison sentence in February 2016 after being convicted of corruption, and was released in July 2017.