ISRAEL - Oct 15 - Police Seek Rape Charge Against Israeli President.

The police recommends that President Moshe Katsav be charged with rape, aggravated sexual assault and fraud, the most serious charges ever to face an Israeli leader. 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 Mazuz. According to the statement issued after the meeting, 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, while investigations concerning disrupting a police investigation and harassing a witness were still in progress. While a previous president and several PMs have been suspected of financial misdeeds and a former defense minister was convicted of sexual harassment, the charges facing Katsav would be the most serious criminal counts brought against a serving Israeli official. In a statement issued by Katsav's office, his lawyer, Zion Amir, said the police were not authorised to bring charges, noting that in the past, when the police had recommended putting senior officials on trial, the attorney general dismissed most of the cases. Mazuz does not have a deadline for making his decision and is expected to take several weeks to study the evidence. Katsav has denied all wrongdoing. In a recent radio interview, he charged that the complaints against him were staged by political enemies and said that he was the victim of a "public lynching without trial or investigation". However, if indicted he would likely 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. Israel Radio and Channel 2 TV said the case against Katsav was based on complaints by five women who alleged that he made unwanted sexual advances toward them during his tenure as president and, before that, as a government minister. Complaints by five other women are not being pursued because the statute of limitations had run out, the reports said. The investigation of Katsav began this year after a former employee alleged that he forced her to have sex under the threat of dismissal. Police officers repeatedly questioned Katsav at his official residence and seized personal documents. Katsav, 60, was born in Iran, is married and has five children and six grandchildren. He has been president since 2000 and is immune from prosecution unless he is impeached by Parliament. The president has been under pressure for weeks to step down over the affair, which has been under investigation since August. He faced new calls to quit after the police statement. Several women members of Parliament members threatened a walkout if Katsav went ahead with plans to attend the opening of the winter session of the legislature on Oct 16.