The ludicrous Leifer affair
Criminals across the world will be watching the case of Malka Leifer very closely. Not because they are necessarily interested in her alleged crimes or have any direct connection to the former Adass head teacher, but because if she can avoid extradition she might set a precedent others will try and follow.
Leifer, who is living in Israel, is fighting an extradition order to return to Australia and face charges relating to child sexual abuse allegations.
So far, she isn’t resisting the order on its merits or by claiming that she has asylum in Israel or by asking for more time to prepare her defence. Her team is simply stating that she has crippling panic attacks before her court appearances that prevent her from showing up.
As a result, the process is facing delay after delay after delay.
And pleading for his client’s health to be taken into account, her lawyer requested last Friday that the case be dismissed, asking the court, “Why are we doing this to her?”
The answer is very simple. Leifer is wanted by Victorian police to face 74 counts of sexual assault.
When she was the head teacher in 2008 rumours surfaced that she had sexually assaulted a child, and within 24 hours she and her family were spirited out of the country.
A judge in a civil case ordered the school and Leifer last year to pay a combined total of more than $1 million to a victim of child sexual abuse.
Thankfully, last week the judge in Israel overseeing the extradition proceedings didn’t dismiss the case, as requested by Leifer’s lawyer, and instead ordered another independent psychiatric assessment of Leifer.
She remains in home detention in Jerusalem and, hopefully, will remain there until she is brought back to Australia to face the alleged crimes she has been charged with.
So to answer the question of why we are doing this to her, the response is because justice demands it; because we owe it to the alleged victims and because if people who are panicked by the idea of going to prison are allowed to get away with their alleged crimes, then very few people would ever stand trial in the first place.
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