Malka Leifer departs Israel for Australia to face 74 counts of child sexual abuse in Victoria
Israel has extradited Malka Leifer to Australia following a decade-long effort by accusers of the alleged child abuser to have her brought back to Melbourne.
The former principal, who faces 74 counts of child sexual abuse in Victoria, was rushed out of Israel before the main airport in the country was due to be shut on Tuesday as part of tightening coronavirus restrictions.
Authorities had moved her overnight from a women’s prison where she was detained to the airport. Pictures published by Israeli media showed Leifer being escorted onto a plane while handcuffed and wearing a face mask.
Leifer left Australia for Israel in 2008 after allegations were raised and she has since faced more than 70 extradition hearings over the course of a sixyear trial. The long legal saga, as well as allegations of interference from an Israeli official, have tested relations between Israel and Australia.
Dassi Erlich, an alleged victim of Leifer who has led the campaign to have her former principal face legal proceedings in Australia, tweeted: “Leifer is on the way back to Australia”.
Politicians, diplomats and Jewish community leaders have said the campaign launched by three alleged victims - Erlich and her sisters Elly Sapper and Nicole Meyer - was instrumental in securing her extradition from Israel to Australia.
Josh Burns, the Labor MP whose seat of Macnamara takes in the Adass Israel school where the alleged abuse occurred, told the Guardian: “This is a day many of us worried would never come. But it came because of three brave sisters who never stopped fighting for their day in court.”
Dave Sharma, the Liberal MP for Wentworth and Australia’s former ambassador to Israel, said reports Leifer was on her way to Australia were “welcome news for all who care about justice in this case”.
“Justice one step closer,” Sharma said.
A spokesman for Australia’s attorney general, Christian Porter, said the government was aware of the reports of Leifer having left Israel.
“The Australian government does not comment on logistics involving extradition arrangements against individuals until the extradition process has concluded,” the spokesman said, noting Victorian authorities were responsible for the physical return of Leifer now that the legal extradition process had ended.
A Victoria police spokesman said “with the extradition process underway and the matter before the courts it would be inappropriate to comment”.
The Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council said it welcomed “with an enormous sense of relief” the news that Leifer was en route to Australia.
Mark Leibler, the council’s national chairman, said: “We hope the images of Malka Leifer being escorted onto a plane to Australia will bring some satisfaction to her many alleged victims.”
Leifer’s lawyer,Nick Kaufman, complained that Israeli authorities were expected to keep the transfer secret “to ensure maximum respect for Ms Leifer’s dignity until she left Israeli jurisdiction”.
He added: “This clearly did not happen given the fact that photographs of her being led in handcuffs and legcuffs were leaked to the press.”
Leifer was arrested and placed under house arrest in Israel after extradition orders were filed by Victoria police in 2014.
An Israeli court initially found her mentally unfit to be extradited. However, Israeli police rearrested Leifer after private investigators filmed her going about her daily life in the West Bank settlement of Emmanuel where she was living.
The case made further news following accusations that Israel’s thendeputy heath minister Ya’acov Litzman – who comes from the same sect of ultra-orthodox Judaism as Leifer – allegedly tried to influence psychiatric evaluations of the former principal. Litzman has denied any wrongdoing.
In December, after Israel’s supreme court found Leifer had been feigning mental illness and was fit to be extradited to Australia, the court rejected her final appeal.