Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav has begun serving a seven-year prison sentence for rape.
Katsav, 66, was convicted a year ago of raping a former female employee when he was a cabinet minister and of sexually assaulting two other women when he was president from 2000 to 2007.
On his way to a minimum security prison in central Israel on December 7, Katsav again protested his innocence and said Israel was today "burying a man alive."
Katsav was to have entered prison in May but remained free while he appealed his conviction. Israel's Supreme Court rejected his appeal last month.
compiled from agency reports