JERUSALEM, Oct 15: Israeli police said on Sunday it had acquired evidence suggesting President Moshe Katsav had raped and molested women who worked for him.

Mr Katsav, whose position is largely ceremonial, has denied any wrongdoing and said he was the victim of a ‘public lynching without trial or investigation’.

In a joint statement capping weeks of investigations, Israel’s Justice Ministry and national police said: “There is prima facie evidence of a number of incidents in which several women who worked under his authority were involved, that the president carried out sex crimes of rape, sexual molestation by force and without consent.”

Mr Katsav was also suspected of ‘a violation of a law against Eavesdropping’, it said, summing up findings presented by a team of police investigators.

Israel’s Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz would decide whether to bring charges against Mr Katsav after prosecutors review the evidence, the statement added.

Mr Katsav is immune from standing trial unless he is impeached by parliament if it determines he acted inappropriately. He has been president since 2000.

An indictment would be unlikely to have any significant political repercussions.

But the scandal adds to a list of events that have darkened the mood in Israel, where a minister has been indicted for a forced kiss and the government is under fire for its handling of a war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The president, already under pressure for weeks to step down over the scandal under investigation since August, is now likely to face wider calls to quit. —Reuters