Israel said on Sunday its police force had acquired evidence suggesting President Moshe Katsav had raped and molested women who worked for him. 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.” Katsav was also suspected of “a violation of a law against eavesdropping”, it said, summing up findings presented by a team of police investigators. Full Story