JERUSALEM — Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav was convicted today of raping an employee when he was a Cabinet minister, the most serious criminal charges ever brought against a high-ranking official in Israel and a case that shocked the nation.

Katsav, 65, likely faces from four to 16 years in prison for the crimes, which included two counts of raping an employee in 1998 when he was tourism minister and lesser counts of indecent acts and sexual harassment involving two other women who worked for him when he held the largely ceremonial office of president from 2000-2007.

It is a stunning fall from grace for a man who rose from poverty to the highest levels of power and became a model of success for Sephardic Jews — those of Middle Eastern Origin — who for decades were an ethnic underclass in society.

The conviction of a former president on rape charges — virtually unheard of in a modern Westernized country — is another victory in a decades-long struggle by women's rights groups to chip away at a macho culture that permitted Israel's early political and military leaders to get away with great liberties.

Katsav has denied the rape charges, claiming he is a victim of a political witch hunt and suggesting he was targeted because he is Sephardic. Katsav was born in Iran and immigrated to Israel as a child.

He left the courtroom without commenting.