Accused pedophile delays extradition

Mercury
May 8, 2016

http://www.themercury.com.au/news/breaking-news/accused-pedophile-delays-extradition/news-story/95be5be7f81e2cc3a8f9bfcb42c0002a

The Jerusalem District Court has ruled to suspend all legal proceedings against an alleged pedophile and ex-principal of a religious Jewish girl's school in Melbourne.

The move further delays a call for Malka Leifer's extradition to Victoria where she would face prosecution for 74 sexual abuse offences against girls at the school she headed.

Leifer failed to appear in the Jerusalem District Court for the eighth time in two years, after her legal team have persistently argued she is unfit to stand trial due to her psychiatric state.

Leifer's defence headed by Yehuda Fried has argued she suffers panic attacks and bouts of depression as each court hearing approaches.

A psychiatrist's report presented to the court in April said that she suffered a psychotic episode ahead of a scheduled hearing in April and had to be hospitalised for two days.

So far eight court hearings have gone ahead without her being present, a move many say is a delaying tactic by her defence.

In a hearing at the Jerusalem District Court on Sunday, prosecutor Avital Ribner Oron urged Judge Amnon Cohen to hospitalise Leifer for treatment if she was indeed suffering psychotic episodes.

"If Leifer is not fit to stand trial and if in fact she is having some kind of psychotic episode, or she is psychotic, then she needs treatment and she should be hospitalised," Oron said.

"It is the most intensive type of care and they will be able to oversee her mental situation and once we receive an update that she is able to stand trial then we can return to court and ask that proceedings resume and the extradition hearings begin."

In a surprising move on Sunday, Leifer's defence and the prosecution both agreed that all legal proceedings should be suspended until she received medical treatment, pending a psychiatrist's report on what that treatment should be.

Ribner Cohen told the judge the state believed Leifer should be hospitalised and not treated in an outpatient capacity.

Judge Cohen called for a psychiatric recommendation on what treatment Leifer should receive.

The options were hospitalisation, outpatient treatment, or no treatment.

The district psychiatrist would deliver his recommendations by the end of May and they would be assessed in court on June 2.

Those recommendations were not binding.

At a hearing in February, which went ahead without her presence, Leifer's lawyers asked for the case to be dismissed entirely.

"After receiving the assessment of the district psychiatrist - who gave a very clear assessment according to Israeli law - all legal proceedings must stop against the suspect," the judge ruled.

"I call on the original psychiatrist to assess if he thinks a hospitalisation order should be issued, or if he would recommend another possible treatment."

Leifer has been living under house arrest in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish city called Beni Brak in Israel, where she fled in 2008 allegedly with the help of senior board members of Melbourne's isolated religious Jewish Adass community.

It took six years for the law to catch up with Leifer in Israel - she was placed under house arrest in 2014 after an extradition request from Australia.

Leifer headed Adass Israel School from 2003, until 2008 when she fled.

She was highly regarded in the community, running day-to-day operations at the school, while also teaching Jewish studies.

Members of the Adass Israel School board are under investigation by police in Victoria for helping Leifer and her family leave.