Sisters just want their day in court in Malka Leifer case

The Australian victims of accused sex predator Malka Leifer have declared they do not care whether the former Jewish school principal serves a prison sentence here or in Israel.

Former Melbourne principal Malka Leifer in an Israeli court in 2018. Picture: AFP

The Australian victims of accused sex predator Malka Leifer have declared they do not care whether the former Jewish school principal serves a prison sentence here or in Israel.

Lawyers for Ms Leifer will seek to exploit a little-known provision of Israeli law to make her extradition conditional on an agreement to send her back to Israel to do time if she is convicted and jailed.

The fallback position emerged during Thursday’s appeal in Israel’s Supreme Court against a court order to return the mother-of-eight to Melbourne to face charges of sexually abusing three sisters while she was head of the Adass Israel school serving the city’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.

The elder sister, Nicole Meyer, told The Weekend Australian their priority was to have Ms Leifer answer for her alleged crimes in an Australian court.

“Honestly, I don’t really mind where she sits for her jail sentence as long as I have a chance to stand up in court and face her and speak,” Ms Meyer, 35, said.

“I think my sisters feel the same way. We are not particularly fussed about the need for her to be in an Australian jail if that’s the deal the Australian and Israeli governments make.

“It’s more about her finally coming here and having to answer for what she did in court.”

Ms Leifer’s first line of defence is to argue that the extradition order issued in September by the Jerusalem District Court was invalid, partly because the offence of digital rape is not recognised in Israel’s extradition treaty with Australia.

But Israeli prosecutors, acting on behalf of the Australian government, sharply disputed this during the Supreme Court appeal hearing. Ms Leifer’s lawyer, Nick Kaufman, said afterwards: “It sounds a bit technical but it is a valid legal argument.”

If the appeal is rejected, as legal observers in Israel consider likely, her bid to serve any sentence of imprisonment in Israel will turn on her residence status when she was in Australia for eight years from 2000 and allegedly abused Ms Meyer and her sisters, Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper.

The Supreme Court was told that Ms Leifer, 54, was on a “shlichut Toranit” to teach Judaism, and Israel remained the focal point of her life. Initially, this was on a 457 work visa but in 2002 Ms Leifer waived the opportunity to apply for Australian residence, affirming her commitment to the Jewish state, her lawyers argued.

Legal sources familiar with the law of extradition in Israel said if the Supreme Court accepted this, it would be open to the Israeli government to request that Ms Leifer serve any prison time at home or make this a condition of her extradition.

Attorney-General Christian Porter said the “critical primary step” in the six-year process to extradite her was for the judicial process in Israel to conclude.

The Supreme Court is tipped to deliver judgment on the appeal as early as next week, after which the extradition will go to Israeli Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn for sign-off. This could in turn be appealed, but the grounds are limited. Australia and Israel would then have 60 days to make the arrangements to put Ms Leifer on a plane.