Sisters applaud decision to keep Malka Leifer in jail

An Israeli judge has declared accused pedophile Malka Leifer a flight risk as she overturned the granting of bail to the accused peophile.

Malka Leifer being led into court in Jerusalem in February last year. Picture: AP

A senior Israeli judge has declared accused pedophile Malka Leifer a flight risk as she overturned the granting of bail to the woman wanted on 74 counts of child sex abuse in Melbourne.

Her alleged victims applauded the decision, saying it had restored their faith in Israel’s justice system and hope that Ms Leifer would ­finally answer to an Australian court. “It’s been hanging over our heads like a thunder cloud for the last week,” said Nicole Meyer, 34, the eldest of three sisters who say they were abused by Leifer when she was principal of Melbourne’s ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel ­Jewish school.

“So it was really positive to have a result like this. It gives us hope in the process again.”

Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne voiced Australia’s concern when a Jerusalem District Court judge ­ordered Ms Leifer to be released from jail into home detention on October 2. Her extradition has been sought by the government since 2014.

But in a written ruling handed down on Friday, Justice Anat Baron of Israel’s Supreme Court said Ms Leifer’s escape from Australia in 2008, only hours after her alleged crimes were exposed, demonstrated that she was a continuing flight risk.

She should remain behind bars “in order to give adequate ­response to concerns that the ­accused will flee and obstruct justice”, Justice Baron ruled.

Ms Leifer’s lawyers maintain that their ability to defend her has been hamstrung by her fragile mental state. They say that her dread of court brings on debilitating panic attacks, rendering her unable to appear.

But Israeli prosecutors, acting on behalf of the Australian government, insist she is faking illness to drag out the proceedings.

Marking the 60th court hearing in the marathon case, Justice Baron took aim at the defence, saying: “The doubt itself regarding the credibility of the defendant in everything relating to her mental status creates the concern that this is an attempt by her to escape justice and to disrupt the legal proceedings.”

Issuing a hurry-up to the lower court, she noted that the extradition proceedings had been under way for five years.

On the decision last month by the Jerusalem District Court to appoint another panel of psychiatrists to assess Ms Leifer’s fitness for court, Justice Baron said: “It would be fitting … for the panel of experts to be appointed without delay, and after … the conclusions of the panel are received that a ruling be made within a reasonable time.”

Australia’s former ambassador to Israel and newly elected Liberal MP, Dave Sharma, has warned that the bilateral relationship was being damaged by the stalled ­extradition, while the Prime Minister has described the situation as “incredibly distressing” for Ms Meyer and her sisters.

Senator Payne raised the case with interim Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz earlier this month, saying the prospect of Ms Leifer’s release from jail was concerning.