Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav was taken to a prison on Wednesday to begin a seven-year sentence for rape, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.
Katsav, 66, was convicted in December last year of sexually assaulting a former employee while he was a Cabinet minister in the 1990s and two other women while president between 2000 and 2007.
He had remained free while he appealed the conviction.
The Supreme Court upheld the conviction last month.
The 66-year-old insisted he was innocent as he addressed reporters before leaving his home in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi.
“The State of Israel is executing a man today on the basis of impressions, without real time testimony, without evidence,” he said. “One day, consciences be awakened and you will see that you buried a man alive.”
He will be placed in a wing at Maasiyahu prison near Tel Aviv that is reserved for observant Jews, the BBC reported.
Katsav will also be given a special warden to make sure the former president doesn’t commit suicide.
