Moshe Katzav has won a delay to his prison sentence after Israel's Supreme Court ruled it should not start until his appeal is heard.

The disgraced former Israeli president was due to go to jail for seven years on May 8, following his conviction last December for two counts of rape and other charges.

Katzav, who was Israel's eighth president, will find out later this month if his appeal is successful.

The charges against the 65-year-old date back to his time as a cabinet minister in 1998 and also to his seven-year presidency. When he was sentenced in March he became the highest ranking official in Israel's history to be jailed.