Alleged sexual abuser Malka Leifer waived last chance to fight extradition

Alleged sex abuser Malka Leifer waived her last chance to stay in Israel after the country’s Justice Minister delivered on a promise to at once sign the extradition order.

Malka Leifer in a Jerusalem. court in 2018. Picture: AFP

Alleged sex abuser Malka Leifer waived her last chance to stay in Israel after the country’s Justice Minister delivered on a promise to at once sign the extradition order.

Ms Leifer will be on a plane to Melbourne by mid-February if there are no further delays to a process that has dragged on for more than six years since the ­Australian government applied for her return, and nine years since her accusers went to the police.

Her lawyer, Nic Kaufman, told The Australian they would not ­resist Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn’s move to approve the extradition with what was described as “light speed”.

Mr Nissenkorn signed the ­papers when the ink was barely dry on Tuesday’s decision by the Israeli Supreme Court to reject her appeal against extradition. “The Minister of Justice was meant to exercise his discretion in a considered manner after hearing submissions from the defence and not impetuously in a flagrant attempt to appeal to popular sentiment,” Mr Kaufman said.

“Ms Leifer will not be seeking judicial review of this administrative act.”

She and her lawyer could have gone back to the Supreme Court in its constitutional capacity as the High Court of Justice, but Mr Kaufman said the defence’s focus had shifted. “Should Ms Leifer not be acquitted in Australia we will, in due course, be seeking that she serve any prison term imposed on her in Israel,” he said. “By then, we can only hope to deal with a new minister ... who will adopt a different attitude to the basic principles of due process.”

In a joint statement, Foreign Minister Marise Payne and ­Attorney-General Christian Porter said they were heartened that Ms Leifer had apparently accepted she would be extradited, though it needed to be confirmed.

On the 74 counts of sexual ­assault Ms Leifer faces for preying on three sisters while principal of the Adass Israel ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne, Mr Porter said: “These are extremely serious allegations which should be heard within the Victorian ­judicial system. After many years, it now appears that is close to ­becoming a reality.”

Senator Payne praised Ms Leifer’s alleged victims Nicole Meyer, Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper, saying: “They have shown enormous patience and resolve. I hope these developments … give them confidence that this chapter in the long-running and difficult process is drawing to a close.” The sisters declined to comment about the development on legal advice.

Attention will now swing to the tricky logistics of retrieving Ms Leifer, 54, when Israel is in the grip of a severe coronavirus outbreak. The scarcity of seats on commercial flights, quarantine requirements and concern about how Ms Leifer would cope with the journey when she has claimed to suffer mental ill-health could force Australia to send either an RAAF or charter aircraft.

Her surrender to Australian custody is required within 60 days of the completion of legal proceedings under Israeli law.