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Former minister faces jail
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FORMER Israeli Transport Minister Yitzhak Mordechai decided Wednesday afternoon to appeal the Jerusalem Magistrates Court's verdict that convicted him of sexual assault.
Officials in Mordechai's Knesset (parliament) office said that Mordechai will suspend his parliamentary membership until the appeal "clears his name."
The Jerusalem Magistrates Court convicted Mordechai, 56, on two charges of sexually assaulting two women working for him in the past, but exonerated him from a third similar charge due to inconsistencies in the third woman's testimony.
Mordechai is facing prison terms up to seven years for each count, with sentencing to come next month.
Last April, one of Mordechai's women staffers accused him of sexual assault, then two other women who had worked for the minister respectively when he was Israel Defence Forces major general in 1992 and defence minister in 1996 also lodged similar complaints.
The police began investigation into the cases shortly after Mordechai resigned as transport minister a year ago.
Although Mordechai denied all the charges, Prosecutor Eli Abarbanel depicted Mordechai as "a man with a fixed habit of attempting to force sexual relations on women by exploiting his status as their superior".
Once a rising star in Israel's political arena, Mordechai ran for prime ministership in the 1999 elections. The conviction would probably end his political career, Israeli political analysts said.
(SD-Agencies)
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