Justice Minister Signs Extradition Order for Alleged Offender Malka Leifer
17 December, 2020 |
5 years ago
Jerusalem, 17 December, 2020 (TPS-IL) -- Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn signed on Wednesday an order extraditing accused sex-offender Malka Leifer back to Australia.
The High Court of Justice ruled Tuesday that Leifer can be extradited to Australia to stand trial. This ruling was the last in years of court proceedings in which Leifer’s legal team asserted that she was mentally unfit.
A psychiatric panel in January decided that the alleged sex offender, who escaped to Israel from Australia, is mentally fit to stand trial and has been feigning mental illness.
“After many years, after a despicable attempt to impersonate some suffering from mental illness and in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling, it is our moral duty to allow Leifer to be tried,” said Nissenkorn.
Leifer will leave for Australia in the coming 60 days.
Leifer, a former Ultra-Orthodox girls’ school principal, is charged in Australia with dozens of cases of child abuse. She fled to Israel in 2008 following allegations that she had sexually abused students at the Adass Yisroel school in Melbourne on 74 different occasions.
