Judges express skepticism over Leifer’s Supreme Court extradition appeal
The judges expressed skepticism on several occasions to the claims by Leifer’s defense attorneys.
By JEREMY SHARONMalka Leifer, a former Australian school principal who is wanted in Australia on suspicion of sexually abusing students, walks in the corridor of the Jerusalem District Court accompanied by Israeli Prison Service guards, in Jerusalem(photo credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
The Supreme Court on Thursday heard the appeal of alleged sex abuser Malka Leifer against her extradition to Australia, where she is wanted on charges of rape and sexual assault. The presiding justices were skeptical about the merits of her defense team’s arguments.The Jerusalem District Court ruled in September that Leifer must be extradited to Australia to stand trial for sexual abuse she allegedly committed against at least three of her pupils at the Adass Israel School in Melbourne.During Thursday’s hearing, Leifer’s defense attorneys argued that the acts she had committed were consensual. Furthermore, since Israel’s extradition treaty with Australia does not specify the sexual acts she had committed, she should not be deported, they said.Due to the intense media coverage Leifer’s six-year legal proceedings have generated, a jury in Australia would not be able to arrive at an unbiased decision in the case, her lawyers said.Despite these arguments, the justices expressed skepticism on several occasions to their claims.In response to the argument that a fair trial could not be secured due to the broad media coverage of the affair, one justice essentially admonished the defense attorney, telling him the huge media coverage came about because the defense team had dragged out the proceedings for so long.Manny Waks, CEO of the Voicsa organization, which combats sexual abuse of children in the Jewish community, said he had no doubt the justices would deny Leifer’s appeal based on their attitude toward her defense attorneys’ arguments.He criticized the defense’s claims that the acts committed by Leifer had been consensual, adding that in the Australian state of Victoria, whose capital is Melbourne, it is an offense for someone in a supervisory role, such as a teacher, to engage in sexual activity with a person in their care under the age of 18.“Arguments that Leifer’s victims may have consented to repeated sexual assaults by their ultra-Orthodox headmistress amounts to ‘victim-blaming’ and should have no place in such a system,” Waks said.“The well-funded Leifer defense team has exploited the Israeli judicial system,” he said. “This must all be reviewed and addressed as soon as possible. Victims and survivors of child sexual abuse need to have faith that the legal system affords them justice, rather than simply a haven for their abusers.”
Dassi Erlich, one of Leifer’s alleged victims, said it had been “difficult to hear” the arguments of the defense lawyer that her abuse had been consensual. She said she was waiting for the day when she could tell her story in court.“Once Leifer faces an Australian court we will have a chance to speak our truth,” Erlich wrote on Facebook.
