Ex-president freed after rape term

Israeli ex-president Moshe Katsav was freed from prison Wednesday after prosectors declined to appeal a parole board decision to release him after he served five years of a seven-year term for rape. Katsav, 71, did not speak to a crowd of journalists gathered outside the Maasiyahu prison near Tel Aviv as he left while surrounded […]

Israeli ex-president Moshe Katsav was freed from prison Wednesday after prosectors declined to appeal a parole board decision to release him after he served five years of a seven-year term for rape.
Katsav, 71, did not speak to a crowd of journalists gathered outside the Maasiyahu prison near Tel Aviv as he left while surrounded by family.
Katsav 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 an outcast of the political establishment. Katsav began his sentence in December 2011 and had been rejected twice by the parole board since he became eligible for the customary one-third reduction for good behaviour.