Malka Leifer: Accused paedophile principal to be extradited from Israel to Australia

Three sisters alleged to have been sexually abused by a female principal finally received news from Israel they had waited on for nine years.

Malka Leifer appears in an Israeli court.

Three Melbourne sisters alleged to have been sexually abused by a female school principal finally received the news from Israel they had waited on for nine long years: Malka Leifer is to be extradited to Australia.

Sitting with her siblings, Nicole Meyer said it was like “we can all breathe again”.

“It’s such a huge validation for us and the many other victims of sexual abuse,” she told The Australian after a Jerusalem judge ordered Ms Leifer’s extradition late on Monday.

“Between us, there’s many years of pent-up breath and to be able to exhale is a huge relief.”

Ms Leifer, 55, will appeal against the extradition but her options dramatically narrowed earlier this month when Israel’s Supreme Court found she was fit to be put on the plane to face 74 counts of the sexual abuse of Ms Meyer, 35, and her sisters, Dassi Erlich, 32, and Elly Sapper, 31.

As head of the Adass Israel ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne, Ms Leifer is alleged to have preyed on them for four years, almost up until the time she fled to Israel in 2008. She had rushed to the airport in the dead of night when the school board learned of the allegations.

The young women went to Victoria Police in 2011, and Ms Leifer was detained by Israeli authorities in 2014 after the Australian government applied for her extradition.

Claiming to be too mentally ill to face court, the mother of eight fought tooth and nail to string out the legal proceedings to the point where the case was suspended in 2016. Ms Meyer and her sisters feared their accused abuser would never be brought to justice.

On Monday, Ms Leifer appeared by video link from Israel’s Neve Tirza women’s prison to hear judge Chana Miriam Lomp of the Jerusalem District Court, presiding over hearing No 71, grant the Australian extradition request.

Israel’s COVID-19 lockdown meant only 11 people were in the court, including Ms Leifer’s brother, sister and one of her sons.

Dressed in jail garb, her hair covered, a masked Ms Leifer said nothing. Judge Lomp told the prison guards to instruct her to raise her head for the decision.

She failed to comply as the judge announced she would be extradited.

Sisters Elly Sapper, left, Dassi Erlich and Nicole Meyer. Picture: Paul Jeffers

Her lawyers insisted outside court they had strong grounds on which to go to the Supreme Court.

“It’s very sobering to realise where we have come from, from 2016 until now,” Ms Meyer said.

“That was a very low point of the campaign. We had all these questions and no answers. Where do we go next? What do we do?

“She had literally manipulated the system and she was free in 2016.

“It was a scary thought. We weren’t there (in Israel), we had no one representing us in court, no voice. We have found our voices in the last three years and our voices helped bring this about, to have Leifer returned here to answer for her crimes. Yes, it’s a very big deal.”

Welcoming the extradition order as a “victory for justice”, Ms Erlich said: “Today our hearts are smiling.”

Prosecutors Matan Akiva and Avital Ribner of the International Department of Israel’s Attorney-General’s office, which argued the case on behalf of the Australian government, said Judge Lomp’s ruling was important for the rule of law in the Jewish state.

“For Israel’s international com­mitment and especially for the victims of the crime, we regret the proceedings took a long time, mainly due to Leifer’s attempt to impersonate a mentally ill person — an attempt that failed according to the decisions of the District Court and the Supreme Court,” they said in a joint statement.

The Supreme Court will not have the final say, however. If Judge Lomp’s order is upheld, the extradition needs to be signed off by Israel’s Minister for Justice, Avi Nissenkorn, which could also be challenged by Leifer’s lawyers.

Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler called on Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to honour a commitment he made last October to a ­visiting delegation, including former prime minister John Howard and former deputy prime minister Wayne Swan, that the Israeli government would do “everything in its power” to speed her return to Australia.

“I look forward to the Prime Minister delivering on that assurance,” Mr Leibler said.