Israeli police have turned their attention to a meeting between the chief psychiatrist of Jerusalem and a senior Israeli politician being investigated for interfering with medical evidence preventing the extradition of a former Australian school principal accused of sexually abusing students in Melbourne.
Jerusalem’s District Psychiatrist Jacob Charnes provided two psychiatric opinions of Malka Leifer after her initial arrest in 2014. Both deemed her mentally unfit to stand at her extradition trial.
Dr Charnes signed off on a new medical evaluation last February. That third evaluation reversed his first two findings.
However, when testifying at Ms Leifer’s latest extradition hearing he again declared her unfit, going against several other medical professionals who found her mentally competent.
Ms Leifer fled to Israel in 2008, just hours after accusations of sexual abuse were brought to the attention of the Adass Israel ultra-orthodox Jewish girls school in Melbourne.
She faces 74 counts of sexual abuse and has been living in the town of Emmanuel while fighting extradition.
Read the article by Elias Visontay in The Australian.