Battle over extradition of alleged sex offender Malka Leifer continues
Ahead of tomorrow’s opening day of the extradition hearing which, if successful, would see alleged child sex abuser Malka Leifer returned to Australia, her defence lawyer appealed in Israel’s Supreme Court against a ruling that his team were not allowed specific documents.
Nick Kaufman Photo: Facebook
The District Court ruled in May that Leifer is mentally fit to stand trial and can be extradited to face trial in Australia, but the legal battle is still ongoing.
Nick Kaufman, the new lawyer representing Leifer in her extradition case, requested that the Jerusalem District Court order the Prosecution to hand over materials relating to meetings between the three complainants, the sisters Nicole Meyer, Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapir, Liefer’s alleged victims, with Israeli politicians and between Australian and Israeli politicians.
Judge Miriam Lomp rejected that request, and Leifer’s lawyers and the Jerusalem Supreme Court heard the appeal today. Although there was no decision handed down, Judge Barak-Erez deemed most of Kaufman’s arguments irrelevant.
Child sex advocate Manny Waks was in the Supreme Court and reported that Leifer watched the proceedings from prison through a video link.
Malka Leifer, a former school principal, who is wanted on 74 charges of sexual abuse in Melbourne, Australia, is led out of the Jerusalem District Court. Jerusalem, Jun 14, 2018. Photo by Hillel Maeir/TPS
The Jerusalem District Court will discuss the commencement of an extradition hearing tomorrow (Monday).
The court’s decision that Leifer is mentally fit for trial follows some six years of legal proceedings against the alleged offender.
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.
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.
TPS/J-Wire
Well done Judge Miriam Lomp for calling out this latest pathetic defence concerning meetings between the victims and politicians. What a coward this defendant is. Many pedophiles, quite wrongly, think that they are doing no wrong.
I note this comment in particular as reported in ABC News:
“Defence lawyer Nick Kaufman also questioned whether some of the alleged abuse was a crime under Israeli law, because it occurred when two of the alleged victims were no longer children and could have rebuffed the sexual advances, implying they consented.”
Are her legal team unaware of Section 49E of the Victorian Crimes Act 1958: “Sexual assault of a child aged 16 or 17 under care, supervision or authority”. The issue as I see it is not whether she committed a crime in Israel, but that she allegedly committed a crime in Victoria.
Spot on and that is why Victoria wants her back here to face trial for her crimes again Victoria’s children. Israel law has nothing to do with her crimes in Victoria.