Jerusalem: Israeli prosecutors have asked a Jerusalem court to extradite a woman to Australia over accusations of sexually abusing pupils, after a new psychiatric evaluation determined her fit to stand trial.
Malka Leifer is facing 74 charges of child sexual abuse from when she was principal of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne, where she had relocated from Israel.
After allegations surfaced against her in 2008, Leifer and her family left for Israel and have been living in the West Bank settlement of Emmanuel.
An extradition attempt between 2014 and 2016 failed after Leifer was hospitalised in mental institutions and expert opinions determined she was not fit to stand trial. But undercover private investigators filmed Leifer depositing a cheque at the bank and shopping, prompting Israeli authorities to launch an investigation to see if she was pretending to suffer from mental illness to avoid extradition, leading to her February 12 arrest.
At Tuesday night’s hearing at the Jerusalem district court, prosecutors presented a new psychiatric evaluation determining Leifer could face justice.
Read the article in The Australian.