JERUSALEM — Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered former President Moshe Katsav to spend seven years in prison after rejecting the disgraced politician’s appeal of a rape conviction and other sex crimes.

The unanimous decision of the three-judge panel capped a long and sordid chapter in Israeli politics that captured the country’s attention for more than five years and ended with Katsav becoming the highest-ranking Israeli official ever sentenced to prison. He is to start serving his sentence on Dec. 7.

The ruling was seen as a major triumph for women’s rights — and specifically, rape victims’ rights — and for a legal system willing to take on some of the country’s most influential figures. Read more