Extradition for abuse suspect

Israel: Woman facing 74 sex crime charges to face trial in Australia

An Israeli court ruled after years of legal wrangling that an ultra-Orthodox Jewish former school principal suspected of dozens of cases of sexual abuse of her pupils in Australia can be extradited to face trial.

The ruling yesterday delighted her alleged victims as “a victory for justice”.

The Jerusalem district court, which in May determined that Malka Leifer was mentally fit to stand trial, said in its ruling that “the defendant can be extradited to Australia for the crimes attributed to her in the extradition request”.

Leifer, who was not in court yesterday but took part by video conference, is accused of child sex abuse while she was a teacher and principal at an ultra-Orthodox school in Melbourne, where she had emigrated from her native Israel.

According to Australian media, she faces 74 counts of child sex abuse against girls.

After allegations against her surfaced in Australia in 2008, Leifer and her family left for Israel and had been living in the Emmanuel settlement in the West Bank.

A previous extradition attempt between 2014 and 2016 failed after

Leifer was hospitalised in mental institutions and expert opinions found she was not fit to stand trial.

But undercover private investigators later filmed Leifer shopping and depositing a cheque at a bank, apparently living a normal life.

This prompted Israeli authorities to launch a probe into whether she was faking mental illness to avoid extradition, leading to her re-arrest in February 2018.

Jerusalem district court justice Chana Lomp ruled in May that while Leifer had “mental problems”, they were “not psychotic problems of mental illness as in its legal definition” and she was fit to stand trial.

One of Leifer’s former pupils and alleged victims, Dassi Erlich, called the extradition ruling “a victory for justice” for “all survivors”.

“Today our hearts are smiling!” she wrote on her Twitter account.

Leifer’s legal team, however, said they would appeal Lomp’s ruling.

“This is of course not the final word, and the final decision will be reached at the supreme court,” attorneys Tal Gabay and Yehuda Fried said in a statement, noting that Leifer was currently receiving “significant anti-psychotic treatment” in prison.