Israel’s Supreme Court ruled on September 2 that Malka Leifer is fit to stand trial on charges she faces in Victoria. Leifer is accused of 74 counts of rape and sexual assault.
This ruling is a significant milestone in the ongoing effort to extradite Leifer from Israel to Australia. It is the final legal hurdle to a full assessment of Australia’s extradition request. The District Court will decide on September 21 if Leifer should be extradited, although that hearing will still offer avenues for appeal and may result in further delay.
The charges
In 2000, Leifer was employed from Israel to become headmistress of the ultra-orthodox Adass Israel girls’ school in Melbourne. During her time at the school, Leifer is alleged to have sexually abused three students – sisters Dassi Erlich, Nicole Meyer and Elly Sapper.
When the allegations emerged in 2008, Leifer fled to Israel with her family. The school funded her flights. Her alleged victims have doggedly pursued Leifer’s extradition to Australia in the years since, at considerable personal toll.
Australia seeks extradition
In 2013, Australia lodged an extradition request with Israel. Extradition is a process by which an alleged offender may be apprehended by an “extraditing state” and transferred to a “requesting state” in order to be tried for a crime in the requesting state’s jurisdiction.
Although extradition is a longstanding concern of international law, it relies on extradition arrangements between states rather than an overarching system of enforcement.
Australian law governs extradition through the Extradition Act. The act sets a framework for courts to determine if a person is to be extradited from Australia. It also empowers the government to make extradition requests of other governments.
Following Australia’s request, Israel eventually arrested Leifer in 2014. However, she was later bailed, claiming to be too unwell to attend multiple subsequent court hearings on her case.
In 2018, Leifer was again jailed, when evidence emerged that she had been living and socialising normally in an orthodox Israeli settlement.
Read the article by Amy Maguire is an Associate Professor in Human Rights and International Law, at the University of Newcastle in The Big Smoke.