Accused pedophile Malka Leifer’s ‘narrow shoulders bearing all the strain’

Accused child-sex offender Malka Leifer bore on her ‘narrow shoulders’ the strain the case had put on diplomatic relations, a court has heard.

Malka Leifer’s brother and sister at the court in Jerusalem. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

Accused child-sex offender Malka Leifer bore on her “narrow shoulders” the strain that the marathon extra­dition case had put on diplomatic relations between Israel and Australia, a Jerusalem court has been told.

The claim, by lawyers for the wanted former principal of Melbourne­’s Adass Israel ultra-Orthodox Jewish school, underlines the political sensitivity of the case as it enters its sixth year with yet another delay in the stop-start proceedings.

Defence lawyer Tal Gabay told the Jerusalem District Court that Israel’s State Attorney’s office was more concerned about the ­Australia-Israel relationship than due process for Ms Leifer, who is fighting tooth and nail to avoid being returned to Melbourne to face justice.

“My client bears on her narrow shoulders all the strained relations between Australia and Israel,” he said, claiming the history of delay in the case was the fault of Israeli­ prosecutors acting on behalf of the Australian government, not Ms Leifer.

This was because the case had been “reopened” by the prosecution in 2018, after being suspended on the basis of then psychiatric evidence that the fugit­ive educator was too ill to attend court.

Until that point –— when Israel­i police acted on covert video footage of the purportedly incapac­itated woman leading what appeared to be a normal life — all parties including the Australian government had been satisfied with the decision to stay the case, Mr Gabay said.

“They may not have liked the situation but they accepted it,” he submitted during a testy hearing that ran into the early hours of Wednesday (AEDT).

The prosecution rejected this, blaming Ms Leifer and her high-powered legal team for the holdups. The case was adjourned for up to two months by judge Chana Miriam Lomp after Mr Gabay and colleague Yehuda Fried demand­ed more time to prepare their cross-examination of a panel of psychiatrists that had reversed previous findings that Ms Leifer was unfit for court.

This pushed back the hearing date to late February or mid-March, dashing hopes the extra­dition application would be kicked along by the revised medic­al evidence. Ms Leifer was not present in court but a woman ­believed to be her sister sat stony-faced in the public gallery alongside two other family members.

The three new psychiatrists, called in from Tel Aviv to replace a Jerusalem team, detailed­ how Ms Leifer had been able to freely communicate and respon­d to their questions, undermining the defence­ case.

The eldest of the three sisters she is alleged to have groomed and exploited for sex in Melbourne, Nicole Meyer, said the doctors’ 54-page report showed conclusively that Ms Leifer had been feigning mental illness.

Ms Meyer, 34, told The Australian she had been briefed that 20 pages of the confidential 54-page evaluation were devoted to a transcript­ of the psychiatrists’ extensiv­e and seemingly fluent inter­action with Ms Leifer.

“This makes it clear that Leifer has been faking,” the young woman said. “The report says she communicated with those three (psychiatrists), and they were able to understand that she was just trying to manipulate the system.”

Speaking on behalf of her ­sisters, Dassi Erlich, 32, and Ellie Sapper, 30, Ms Meyer said they were disappointed by yet another delay in the case that has dragged on since Ms Leifer was arrested in Israel in 2014, having fled there in 2008 to escape the scandal that would result in 74 charges of sexual assault being filed against her by Victorian police.

Ms Meyer said of the wait of at least six weeks before the next hearing: “It is very draining.’’