Principal accused of abuse is sent back to Australia

JERUSALEM — An Israeli woman accused of sexually abusing students at an Australian school where she was the principal has been extradited from Israel, reports in the Israeli news media state, ending a seven-year deportation process that had tested relations between the two nations. Malka Leifer, 54, is accused of 74 counts of rape and sexual abuse that investigators said took place from 2004 to 2008, when she was the principal of a Jewish girls’ school in Melbourne. The slow pace of the deportation process drew occasional criticism from Australian lawmakers. The case also embroiled an ultra-orthodox Israeli government minister from the same sect as Leifer, Yaakov Litzman, after Israeli police accused him of pressuring psychiatrists to report that Leifer was not well enough to be tried.