A senior Israeli judge has declared accused pedophile Malka Leifer a flight risk as she overturned the granting of bail to the woman wanted on 74 counts of child sex abuse in Melbourne.
Her alleged victims applauded the decision, saying it had restored their faith in Israel’s justice system and hope that Ms Leifer would finally answer to an Australian court. “It’s been hanging over our heads like a thunder cloud for the last week,” said Nicole Meyer, 34, the eldest of three sisters who say they were abused by Leifer when she was principal of Melbourne’s ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel Jewish school.
“So it was really positive to have a result like this. It gives us hope in the process again.”
Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne voiced Australia’s concern when a Jerusalem District Court judge ordered Ms Leifer to be released from jail into home detention on October 2. Her extradition has been sought by the government since 2014.
But in a written ruling handed down on Friday, Justice Anat Baron of Israel’s Supreme Court said Ms Leifer’s escape from Australia in 2008, only hours after her alleged crimes were exposed, demonstrated that she was a continuing flight risk.
She should remain behind bars “in order to give adequate response to concerns that the accused will flee and obstruct justice”, Justice Baron ruled.
Read the article by Jamie Walker in The Australian.