Leifer to face fresh assessment
Jerusalem District Court judge Chana Lomp today (Monday) ruled that existing psychiatric opinions were "insufficient" and demanded a new assessment on December 10.
ALLEGED child sexual abuser Malka Leifer will undergo a fresh assessment in December to decide if she is mentally fit to face an extradition trial.
Jerusalem District Court judge Chana Lomp today (Monday) ruled that existing psychiatric opinions were “insufficient” and demanded a new assessment on December 10.
Leifer is accused of 74 counts of child sexual abuse in Melbourne when she was the principal of the Adass Israel School.
Leifer’s lawyers had argued that the 52-year-old experiences debilitating panic attacks when placed in situations of stress, but the prosecution claimed Leifer was faking her mental illness to elude extradition.
It has also been alleged that Israel’s deputy health minister Yaakov Litzman put pressure on those assessing Leifer to state she was mentally unfit, a claim Litzman denies. Israeli police have recommended indicting Litzman on fraud and breach of trust.
In May this year, a private investigator who tracked Leifer said that during the two weeks he and his associates followed her, they did not witness anything that would indicate she does not function like a normal person.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, private investigator Tzafrir Tzahi said Leifer “was functioning like a normative woman and mother”.
“She does the shopping, hosts her children on Shabbat, goes to the grocery store, goes to the post office, speaks a lot on the cell phone, laughs, converses with people – nothing that could indicate a problem with her daily functioning,” he said.
Full coverage in this week’s AJN.
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