Sex-charge principal Malka Leifer extradited to Australia

Malka Leifer has been put on a plane from Israel, capping a near decade-long campaign to have her face court in Australia.

Malka Leifer (2nd L) is pictured boarding a plane at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel. Leifer is being extradited to Australia to face prosecution for historic sex crimes. Picture: Ynetnews

Accused sex predator Malka Leifer has been put on a plane from Israel to Melbourne, capping a decade-long campaign to have her answer for her alleged crimes in Australia.

Handcuffed and wearing a facemask, the one-time Jewish girls’ school principal was on Monday led onto a commercial airliner in Tel Aviv where a female Victoria Police officer took her into custody at the aircraft door.

The Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany, was one of the last to leave Israel before air travel was shut down to contain a spike in COVID-19 cases.

This is an image we have been waiting years to see. Malka Leifer boarding a plane on her way back to face justice in Australia. #bringleiferback <—- the last time we will use this hashtag???? pic.twitter.com/q66Drs8Fzx

— Emily Gian (@emilygian) January 25, 2021

Ms Leifer was to connect with a service to Melbourne, where she faces 74 charges for the alleged sexual assault and rape of three sisters who attended the Adass ­Israel ultra-Orthodox college while she was in charge.

A spokesman for Attorney-General Christian Porter said the Australian government was aware of reports in Israel that the 54-year-old had been extradited, but did not comment on the logistics of such retrievals.

Welcoming her return, former ambassador to Israel and federal Liberal MP Dave Sharma said it vindicated the years of effort put into the extradition by the alleged victims, their supporters and Australian authorities. “It’s a great day for justice and welcome news for all those who campaigned tirelessly for this day, over seven years and 74 court hearings in ­Israel,” he told The Australian.

In Israel, Ms Leifer’s lawyer, Nick Kaufman, told local media she was not expected to attend a preliminary court hearing in Melbourne, potentially later this week.

He said she was expected to be held at a Victorian women’s jail where she would undergo quarantine. “In light of the delay in the administration of justice and the limited activity of the court in Australia due to the coronavirus crisis, I do not believe Ms Leifer’s case will come to trial this year,” Mr Kaufman said.

Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council national chairman Mark Leibler said the extradition came 13 years after Ms Leifer fled to Israel when her ­alleged crimes at the Adass Israel school came to light in 2008.

“We hope the images of Malka Leifer being escorted on to a plane to Australia will bring some satisfaction to her many ­alleged victims,” he said.

Malka Leifer, a former Australian teacher accused of dozens of cases of sexual abuse of girls at a school. Picture: AFP

“Her alleged victims have endured so much for so long and we hope this news has brought them a renewed sense of relief and strength as their pursuit of justice continues.”

Jeremy Leibler, who heads the Zionist Federation of Australia, said it was a “travesty” that Ms Leifer had been allowed to put off her day of reckoning in Australia for so long.

“While it’s a relief that Israel’s justice system has finally prevailed, the time and process that resulted in these delays are completely unacceptable,” Mr Leibler said.

Victoria Police says the charges against Ms Leifer relate to the alleged abuse of the three sisters, but one of the young women confirmed last year to this newspaper that they were in touch with at least five other victims, also claiming to be attacked while students at Adass Israel.

There, Ms Leifer was responsible for unworldly Jewish girls who grew up in strict ultra-­Orthodox homes where TV, radio, internet access and other touchstones of secular Australian life were banned.

The sisters went to Victoria Police in 2011 to detail what she allegedly did to them and extradition hearings began in Israel in 2014, but Ms Leifer delayed the proceedings by feigning mental illness, according to Israeli prosecutors acting on behalf of the Australian government.

In 2016, the case seemed dead in the water after a judge in Jerusalem suspended the extradition.

Her fiction unravelled when Ms Leifer was secretly filmed out and about in 2018, living what appeared to be a normal life when she had claimed to have been rendered house-bound by a precarious mental and emotional state.

Israeli Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn signed the extradition order on December 16, days after the country’s highest court rejected her final appeal.

An outbreak of COVID-19 in the Neve Tirza women’s prison where Ms Leifer was being held complicated her return.

Sensitivity over the extradition was heightened by rioting in a number of ultra-Orthodox communities, including the enclave of Bnei Brak where Ms Leifer once lived.

This meant she was moved from prison in secrecy in the early hours of Monday.

Mr Kaufman, however, criticised an ­apparent security breach at Ben Gurion airport where Ms Leifer was photographed being led on to the plane in handcuffs.

Additional reporting: Irris Makler in Jerusalem; Rachel Baxendale