Israeli ex-president’s request to lift parole terms denied

JERUSALEM: Israeli expresident Moshe Katsav, jailed for rape and released in December, has been denied 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.

“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.

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. — AFP