JERUSALEM - Israel’s disgraced president Moshe Katsav resigned on Friday after signing a controversial plea bargain that will see him convicted of sexual offences but escape jail for initial rape charges. The father of five, who suspended himself from duty in January over the worst scandal to befall an Israeli leader, sent a letter of resignation by courier to parliament speaker Dalia Itzik, a senior aide to Katsav told AFP. His resignation will take effect in 48 hours, when Itzik will be named interim president and the state prosecution will indict Katsav.The Iranian-born president was forced out of his seven-year term in office some two weeks before Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres is officially sworn in as his successor, having been elected Israel’s ninth president this month. ‘I wish to end the term of my office two weeks in advance and therefore I announce my resignation,’ Katsav wrote in the letter to Itzik, according to parliamentary sources.
The 61-year-old and IsraelÂ’s first head of state born in an Islamic country on Thursday signed the deal, admitting to a series of sex offences, including harassment and indecent acts, but dropping two rape charges. The plea bargain sparked a wave of national outrage.