The President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, has told Australian MPs he will personally intervene in the extradition process of former Melbourne principal Malka Leifer, charged with child sexual abuse, if her years-long legal process drags beyond this week.
As he met with Scott Morrison and a handful of other politicians including Anthony Albanese in Canberra on Wednesday, Mr Rivlin faced questions on Leifer’s extradition which was raised by both the Prime Minister and other MPs from both sides of politics.
A former principal of Melbourne’s ultra-orthodox Adass Israel girls’ school, Leifer, 52, fled to Israel in 2008 as accusations against her surfaced.
She has since been charged with 74 counts of child sexual abuse, with Australia lodging a formal extradition request in 2014.
More than 60 hearings have since taken place, with her extradition stalling over claims she is mentally unfit to stand trial and serious allegations of corruption levelled against
Israel’s Deputy Health Minister for attempting to influence psychiatrists testifying in her extradition.
The commitment from Mr Rivlin comes after local MPs hit out at an “astounding” decision from an Israeli judge last week which threatened to further delay the extradition process.
According to Labor MP Josh Burns — whose electorate of Macnamara takes in the school where the alleged abuse occurred — Mr Rivlin told him he would meet with Israel’s Chief Justice as early as next week to expedite proceedings should a scheduled hearing in Jerusalem this week not progress the matter.
Read the article by Elias Visontay in The Australian.