By Chana Oz
The High Court of Justice ruled Tuesday that alleged sex offender Malka Leifer can be extradited to Australia to stand trial. This follows years of court proceedings in which Leifer’s legal team asserted that she was mentally unfit.
Victim rights activist Manny Waks explained the significance of the ruling. “The extradition request can now be signed off by Israel’s Justice Minister, Avi Nissenkorn, who has already indicated his intention to do so without delay. It is expected that Leifer will be returned to Australia within 60 days of Ministerial sign off,” said Waks.
Member of Knesset Sharren Haskel responded to the verdict on Twitter, “Israel is not a safe haven for pedophiles. This is an important message that the High Court of Justice is expressing today when they ruled that Malka Leifer will be extradited. After six long years in which her victims shouted for justice, today justice has finally been done and Malka Leifer will pay for raping her students.”
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.
Former Health Minister Yaakov Litzman was embroiled in the controversy when the police exposed his aid to have Leifer kept in Israel and declared unfit to stand trial.
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.
