Moshe Katsav, Israel's former president, who was on Tuesday sentenced to seven years in jail for rape

Moshe Katsav, Israel's former president, who was on Tuesday sentenced to seven years in jail for rape, rose from impoverished beginnings to the top job in the country only to fall from grace and become a political leper.
Katsav was formally indicted in March 2009, more than two years after the case went public, for offences committed against his employees when he served as tourism minister and president, including rape and sexual assault.
The Iranian-born bureaucrat, who rose from impoverished origins as a child immigrant to Israel's top job, resigned in June 2007 and became ostricised within the political establishment, his humiliated and loyal wife Gila in tow.
Despite strenuously professing innocence to a litany of sex and rape charges, and refusing enormous public pressure to resign for months, Katsav stepped down as part of a plea bargain that incensed women's rights groups.
However, he later decided that instead of facing trial for lesser charges he would "fight until the truth comes out" and called the deal off.
He was convicted in December of rape, sexual harassment, indecent acts and obstruction of justice following an 18-month trial which included harrowing details which portrayed him as a sexual predator who routinely harassed his female staff.

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