A final decision has not yet been made. But the sources said Lador currently believes that the most likely outcome of the deliberations is a decision to charge Katsav with two counts of rape against A., who worked under him when he was tourism minister.

A. claims that Katsav raped her twice: once in his office in Tel Aviv and once in a hotel in Jerusalem. In both cases, the then-minister used force, she says. Ever since Katsav withdrew from a signed plea bargain in April, the prosecution has been holding feverish discussions on a revised, more serious indictment. The main question has been whether to charge him with forcible indecent assault or rape.

The original draft indictment against Katsav, before the plea bargain was reached, did include rape charges, along with a host of lesser sexual offenses such as exploiting a superior-subordinate relationship to obtain sex. It dealt with offenses allegedly committed against five different women.

However, the indictment finally submitted as part of the plea bargain charged Katsav only with nonconsensual indecent acts against A., sexual harassment of another woman, L., and harassing a witness. Moreover, the prosecution promised as part of the deal not to seek jail time for Katsav. At the time, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz defended the bargain by saying that new evidence submitted by Katsav's lawyers at a pre-indictment hearing had made him doubt he could obtain a conviction on the original charges.

But prosecution sources said the main reason for the delay in drafting the new indictment was not these evidentiary difficulties, but rather the fact that Lador needed time to familiarize himself with the case, which was originally prepared by his predecessor, Eran Shendar.

The sources said the charges should be submitted to the court in the coming weeks. However, one legal expert familiar with the case said the indictment probably would not be submitted until the High Court of Justice rules on a petition against Mazuz by another woman known as A., who worked under Katsav at the President's Residence.

This A. was the original complainant against Katsav, but she was omitted from the indictment submitted as part of the plea bargain due to what Mazuz termed evidentiary problems with her case. She is now asking the court to order Mazuz to reopen the case and stage a confrontation between her and Katsav.

However, the court has yet to schedule a hearing on her petition.

Attorney Avi Lavie, one of Katsav's lawyers, told Haaretz he still hopes the prosecution will decide to close the case. "The prosecution would do better to refrain from filing an indictment, so as not to be humiliated in court," he said.

The Justice Ministry said that no decision has yet been made on the case.