Middle East: Israeli president Moshe Katsav should be charged with rape, police recommended today in a statement.
The recommendation came at a meeting between police investigators and attorney general Meni Mazuz. The final decision on whether to put the president on trial is up to Mr Mazuz.
According to the statement, the police also found basis for charges of fraud and malfeasance in office in the case of pardons granted by the president, as well as illegal wiretapping. Investigations concerning the disruption of a police investigation and harassment of a witness are still in progress.
While a previous president and several prime ministers have been suspected of financial misdeeds and a former defence minister was convicted of sexual harassment, the charges facing Mr Katsav would be the most serious criminal counts brought against a serving Israeli official.
Mr Katsav has denied all wrongdoing. However, if he is indicted, it is likely he would have to step aside. In Israel, the president holds a largely ceremonial role with little authority, but is considered a unifying force in a fractured society.
The investigation of Mr Katsav began earlier this year after a former employee alleged he forced her to have sex under the threat of dismissal. Police repeatedly questioned the president at his official residence and seized personal documents.
Meanwhile, rival Palestinian gunmen from the Hamas and Fatah factions exchanged fire yesterday in the Gaza Strip, wounding at least one person, witnesses and emergency workers said. It was the latest clash of a mounting power struggle between Hamas, an Islamic militant group that won an election last January, and the once-dominant Fatah movement.
Witnesses said gunmen on both sides opened fire as Hamas militants surrounded the home of a gunman from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.
Al-Aqsa is an armed wing of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement.
At least 15 Palestinians were killed in similar fighting that erupted earlier this month.
The clashes ensued as Israel pursued a raid in northern Gaza in a bid to halt rocket fire at the Jewish state and secure the release of a soldier captured in a June 25th cross-border raid.
Israeli troops killed eight Gaza gunmen on Saturday, seven of them from Hamas, raising to 21 the number Israel has killed in the last four days, and 250 since late June.
- (Reuters, AP)