Malka Leifer fit to stand trial, says Israel Supreme Court

Israel’s highest court rejects Malka Leifer’s appeal, ruling she is fit to stand trial and be extradited to Australia.

Malka Leifer at the District Court in Jerusalem in 2018. Picture: AFP

Israel’s highest court, the Supreme Court of Justice, has unanimously rejected Malka Leifer’s appeal, ruling that she is fit to stand trial and be extradited to Australia.

The decision removes one of the final barriers to her extradition after a court battle lasting more than six years.

Leifer, former principal at the Adass Israel Jewish school in Melbourne, is facing 74 sex charges in Victoria over historic child sex abuse claims.

The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that there was no reason to intervene in the earlier judgment that Leifer was fit for trial, handed down by the Jerusalem District Court. Justice Yitzhak Amit said that Leifer’s claim that she became psychotic before court hearings and during psychiatric evaluations could not be accepted.

Justice Amit said that after being released from psychiatric evaluations, Leifer was seen acting in a normal manner, doing her groceries, making phone calls and travelling between cities to visit friends and family. He noted that no less than seven psychiatrists had pronounced her fit for trial, six of whom said she was in fact feigning mental illness.

The Supreme Court ruled that while Leifer may suffer from some psychiatric conditions, it did not mean she was not fit to stand trial for the purposes of extradition. The court held that the standard was lower for extradition, which was a preliminary proceeding, than it would be for a criminal case, leaving open the door for this issue to be raised again during a criminal trial brought in Australia.

The judge held that as the principal legal proceedings would take place in Australia, there was no place to examine the issue of fitness for trial as if this were a local criminal case. “Extradition proceedings should not be a ‘general rehearsal’ for the main proceedings, which are due to be held in the requesting country,” he said.

Leifer’s legal team described the Supreme Court judgment as ground-breaking and creating a new precedent about the different standards required for extradition and criminal cases. Lawyers Tal Gabbay and Menahem Freid noted that the court had not denied that Leifer was on prescription anti-psychotic drugs.

“The court said that was puzzling, it did not find that she had faked her mental state, it left these questions to an Australian court to decide.”

In their statement today, Leifer’s lawyers said, “We will continue to work against Leifer’s extradition and the road to a final decision in this matter is long.”

Leifer fled Australia in 2008 on the night she was confronted with allegations that she had abused a number of pupils. Three sisters – Nicole Meyer, Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper – allege that the grooming and sexual abuse continued over a number of years when they attended the school. Victoria Police brought charges in 2012 and formal proceedings to extradite Leifer to Australia began in 2014.

Ms Erlich tweeted that she was “beyond excited”.

“Six years and 70 court hearings regarding Leifer’s mental fitness! We are exhilarated, finally an end in sight! During this tumultuous journey there were moments when this did not seem possible! Bring on Sept 21 and an extradition decision!”

Israel’s District Court will hand down its judgment in the extradition case on September 21.