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JERUSALEM - The travails of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Government were compounded yesterday when former Justice Minister Haim Ramon was convicted for kissing a young female soldier against her will.
Ramon, at 56 a previously key figure in Olmert's Kadima Party, was found guilty of "indecent behaviour" when the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court decided that he had forcibly kissed the young woman just before taking part in the Cabinet meeting which approved the war in Lebanon last July.
Ramon, who could face up to three years in jail when he is sentenced this month, has insisted the kiss was consensual and is to appeal.
Olmert, who planned to reinstate Ramon if he had been acquitted, may have to appoint a new Justice Minister - a post temporarily filled by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
- INDEPENDENT
