Sisters just want their day in court in Malka Leifer case

The Australian victims of accused sex predator Malka Leifer have declared they do not care whether the former Jewish school principal serves a prison sentence here or in Israel.

Lawyers for Ms Leifer will seek to exploit a little-known provision of Israeli law to make her extradition conditional on an agreement to send her back to Israel to do time if she is convicted and jailed.

The fallback position emerged during Thursday’s appeal in Israel’s Supreme Court against a court order to return the mother-of-eight to Melbourne to face charges of sexually abusing three sisters while she was head of the Adass Israel school serving the city’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

The elder sister, Nicole Meyer, told The Weekend Australian their priority was to have Ms Leifer answer for her alleged crimes in an Australian court.

“Honestly, I don’t really mind where she sits for her jail sentence as long as I have a chance to stand up in court and face her and speak,” Ms Meyer, 35, said.

“I think my sisters feel the same way. We are not particularly fussed about the need for her to be in an Australian jail if that’s the deal the Australian and Israeli governments make.

“It’s more about her finally coming here and having to answer for what she did in court.”

Ms Leifer’s first line of defence is to argue that the extradition order issued in September by the Jerusalem District Court was invalid, partly because the offence of digital rape is not recognised in Israel’s extradition treaty with Australia.

Read the article by Jamie Walker in The Australian.