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| - Before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose corruption trial opens Sunday, three top Israeli officials have been forced to step down in the face of legal woes. Netanyahu disputes the allegations against him and will become the first Israeli leader to go on trial while in office. Former Israeli air force commander Ezer Weizman was forced to resign as president in July 2000 to avoid impeachment. His fall was sparked by revelations he received, and did not declare to tax authorities, some $450,000 from French millionaire Edouard Saroussi in the 1980s when Weizman was an MP and minister. Israeli prosecutors said they would not press criminal charges against Weizman "because of lack of sufficient evidence" and as the statute of limitations had passed. But prosecutors said it appeared Weizman was guilty of fraud and abuse of confidence. The then parliament speaker, Avraham Burg, told Weizman the only way to avoid a humiliating impeachment process was to step down. Weizman died on April 24, 2005, aged 81. In June 2007, president Moshe Katsav quit as part of a plea bargain after being accused of rape and other sexual offences. Katsav was formally indicted in March 2009, more than two years after the case went public, and convicted in December 2010 for offences committed against his employees when he served as tourism minister and president, including rape and sexual assault. In 2011, he was handed a seven-year prison term. He was freed, at the age of 71, in December 2016. In 2008, prime minister Ehud Olmert resigned after police recommended he be indicted for graft. He was accused of accepting cash-stuffed envelopes from a US businessman, multiple-billing foreign trips, and cronyism in relation to a luxury building complex in Jerusalem while he was mayor of the city. He received a 27-month sentence over the scandals and, at the age of 70, became the first former Israeli prime minister to be jailed. After one year and four months in prison, he was granted early release and freed on July 2, 2017. kd/eab/lg/hkb
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