Malka Leifer is Extradited to Australia and Has First Hearing


    Thirteen years after Malka Leifer fled Australia to escape 74 charges of rape, indecent assault, and child sex abuse charges, among others, she is finally extradited to Australia. This followed attempts in 2014 and 2016 to extradite her, both of which were unsuccessful due to Leifer's fabrication of mental illness that deemed her unfit to stand trial. Israeli Deputy Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman is being investigated by police for interfering into the mental health assessment and pressuring psychiatrists to proclaim Leifer unfit to stand trial. Only last year, once an Israeli psychiatric panel declared that she was lying about her mental illness, was her case set back into motion. Israel began the process of extraditing her yet again, leading to the Supreme Court rejecting a final appeal against her extradition. After that, Israel's justice minister, Avi Nissenkorn, signed an order to send Leifer back to Australia.

    Leifer has already had her first hearing, at which she remained silent even when addressed by the magistrate, Johanna Metcalf. Her lawyers insist that she is mentally ill and request that she be transferred to prison from the police station to better accommodate her religious needs. Leifer did not request bail, and will face the court again on April 9. 

    These developments come at the heels of the abuse of at least eight girls who have come forward, including Dassi Erlich, Elly Saper and Nicole Meyer, three sisters who have alleged abuse by Leifer when they were students in Leifer's school. Malka Leifer was head-mistress of Adass Israel School, an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish girl's school in Elsternwick, Australia. The charges against her allegedly happened between the years of 2004-2008, but have not been taken to court until now due to Leifer's escape from Australia to Israel under suspicious circumstances. 

    At long last, justice will prevail.


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Hi! You can call me Vivian. I am a free-spirited girl currently living in the insular Hasidic community of Chabad-Lubavitch. I blog about my questions and struggles with religion, as well as my everyday spoonie life with chronic illness. You'll usually find me either with a pen and notebook, furiously writing up my next poem, or curled up with a cup of hot chocolate and a book. Although if you look hard enough, you might find me secretly watching Netflix somewhere.

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