Woman details sexual allegations against Katsav

JERUSALEM, July 5 (Reuters) An Israeli woman accuses ex-president Moshe Katsav in court papers released today of raping her in his office, a charge he denied while admitting to other sex offences that forced him to quit in disgrace.

The woman, who worked for Katsav, gave her account as part of a petition that she lodged in the Supreme Court, along with civil and women's rights groups, against a plea bargain under which Katsav is to be spared jail.

Although Attorney-General Mordechai Mazuz has dropped the rape charge, citing contradictions in ''A'''s testimony, the Supreme Court could take her allegations into consideration in ruling on the petitions.

The woman, identified only as ''A'', said Katsav had grabbed her from behind and demanded to have sex with her when she entered his office to return a book.

''He let go of her for a second and, frightened, she sat on a nearby chair,'' the court document said.

According to the account, Katsav pulled ''A'' out of the chair and raped her.

''A'' said she had stayed away from her job as Katsav's office administrator for three days after the assault, but decided she had no choice but to return to work at his insistence.

''A' felt completely paralysed and feared for her life because of his warnings not to tell anyone,'' the document said, lending formal legal weight to a vivid description she gave of the alleged incident in a television appearance last week.

Mazuz said in January he intended to charge Katsav with rape and other sexual assaults against former women employees.

But last week he said he was not including the rape charges in a revised indictment filed under the plea bargain -- angering women's rights organisations and sparking a protest by some 20,000 demonstrators in Tel Aviv.

POWERFUL EMOTIONS The case has stirred powerful emotions in a country where women's groups have long complained that authorities shrug off sexual harassment in the workplace.

As part of the deal Katsav signed, he admitted to a string of indecent acts against one woman who worked for him and to sexually harassing another female employee.

He quit last Friday, two weeks before his term was to end.

Katsav, 62, could have faced a maximum seven years in jail for the offences listed in the original charge sheet. Mazuz said he would receive a suspended sentence instead and pay nearly 12,000 dollar in compensation to the two women.

''Ninety percent of the charges were thrown in the trash and that doesn't interest anybody,'' Katsav said in a television interview last week. ''This should show, more than anything else, how the charges against me were baseless.'' But he said he would plead guilty in court to the remaining charges, honouring the plea bargain.

Shimon Peres takes up the post of president on July 15.

REUTERS AGL PM1940