Former president Moshe Katzav will not appeal the Parole Board’s decision to keep him in prison.

The Parole Board today refused to release Katzav to community service, after he served two-thirds of his prison sentence for rape. The board’s decision flew in the face of the most recent recommendations of the Prison Rehabilitation Authority.

Even after it became clear that the board had made their decision based on an old report of the PRA, Katzav refused to appeal: “I do not want to prove my innocence,” he explained to the PRA. “I have no strength to fight. I am tired. I don’t have the strength for anything.”

David Modai, a friend of Katzav, told Army Radio that “this is a sad day, a difficult day, a day of disappointment of many…including his family and including me.”

“He’s already not a young man, that he can just stay behind prison walls,” Modai argued.

Against the words of the former president, his legal counsel is now going through the motions to file an appeal in the District Court.

When it published its decision, the Parole Board decided that if Katzav continues to improve, he can file another petition for release in six months.

Katzav was convicted in 2010 by the Tel Aviv District Court of two counts of rape, one count of aggravated sexual assault, sexual harassment, and one count of obstruction of justice. Katzav was sentenced to seven years in prison, and after his appeal was rejected, he began his sentence in December 2011.