MK Ran Cohen (Meretz) on Tuesday accused former president Moshe Katsav of exploiting decisions made by the prosecution in the process of compiling his plea bargain, after Katsav announced that he was calling off the deal.

"Katsav's annulment of the plea bargain seems to me to be a sordid ruse, which attempts to depend on the fact that the prosecution has de facto rejected some of the complaints of the plaintiffs," Cohen said.

He assessed that Katsav's defense team "will try to reduce the degree of guilt that was agreed upon in the plea bargain."

"I call upon Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz to believe the plaintiffs' versions once more and submit an indictment for the terrible actions that they have related," he said.

Women's rights groups, who had been pushing for an annulment of the deal throughout, expressed satisfaction with the decision, saying that it would allow the plaintiffs to make their voices heard in court.

"This is an opportunity for the court to call in all of the women who registered complaints against Katsav and were not given the opportunity to level their accusations," Rina Bartel, the chairman of the women's lobby said. "We have opined all along that the plea bargain does not reflect the serious allegations against Katsav and have claimed that a just trial should be held during which all of the evidence would be brought to bear."

MK Zehava Gal-On (Meretz) also voiced satisfaction with the cancellation of the deal.

"It's good that the embarrassing farce of a plea bargain…has been withdrawn," she said. "I call on the Attorney-General [Menahem Mazuz] to learn from his mistakes, and to make Katsav stand trial as soon as possible, like any other serial sex offender."

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