JERUSALEM – An Israeli woman accused of sexually abusing her students at an Australian school where she was the principal was reportedly extradited from Israel by Israeli news media and has been deported to a seven-year trial between tested the two countries.
Malka Leifer, 54, is accused of 74 charges of rape and sexual abuse that, according to investigators, took place between 2004 and 2008, when she was the principal of a Jewish girls’ school in Melbourne.
Australian officials formally requested her extradition in 2014, but the process was repeatedly delayed after Leifer’s legal team claimed at the time that she was mentally unfit to stand trial.
Photos published on the Israeli news website Ynet on Monday showed Leifer being escorted aboard a plane in Tel Aviv on Sunday night.
Mrs Leifer’s lawyer, Nick Kaufman, said he had not been officially confirmed deported but that she would be sent to Australia this week.
Officials from the Israeli Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Justice, the public prosecutor, the police and the prison service declined to comment, as did the Australian Attorney General’s office.
Me. Leifer, an Israeli citizen, moved to Australia in 2001, where she later became the principal of Adass Israel, a school for ultra-Orthodox Jewish girls, and then fled to Israel in 2008 after details of the assault charge appeared. .
The slow pace of the deportation process has occasionally attracted Australian lawmakers. The case also involved an ultra-Orthodox government minister from the same sect as Ms. Leifer, Yaakov Litzman, is embroiled after Israeli police accused him of putting pressure on psychiatrists to report that Ms. Leifer was not good enough to be tried.
The case is about the allegations of three sisters – Dassi Erlich, Elly Sapper and Nicole Meyer – who say that they are Mrs. Leifer was abused during her tenure as principal.
Meyer declined to comment Monday on the extradition of Ms. But the victims’ rights groups and the closest to the three sisters who spoke publicly about their abuse said they were delighted with the news that Ms Leifer was on her way to Australia.
“They did not believe that this day would come,” said Manny Waks, a survivor of abuse and CEO of VoiCSA, a group that combates child sexual abuse in the Jewish community.
“I know they are absolutely delighted with the news and look forward to their day in court and to fully account for Leifer,” he said. Wax said.
The trial of Ms. Leifer is unlikely to occur in 2021 due to logistical challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Mr. Kaufman.
After arriving in Australia, she is expected to appear in a video link before a judge who will formally confirm her identity and read out the charges against her, said Mr. Kaufman said.
“We hope she will be held in a place of detention that will respect her religious beliefs and contact her regularly with her lawyers and family,” he said. Kaufman said.
Mr. Kaufman also said that the publication of photos of Ms. Leifer’s extradition undermined her dignity.
The Australian Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that the government was aware of the reports about Ms. Leifer’s extradition, however, could not comment on the process until she had formally completed the extradition process.
“Both the Attorney General and the Minister of Foreign Affairs have expressed their gratitude to the Israeli Government for its assistance and cooperation in bringing this lengthy process to an end,” the statement added.
Officials from the German police force and the airport in Frankfurt, where allegedly me. Leifer was transferred to Australia after a flight, saying they could not confirm she was in transit.
Patrick Kingsley reports from Jerusalem and Livia Albeck-Ripka from Melbourne. Myra Noveck reported from Jerusalem.