Melbourne’s MOST WANTED
A large heavyset woman in her fifties, cuffed at the ankles and wrists, shuffled into a Jerusalem courtroom. It was February 2018, the first time in four years that Malka Leifer had been brought into court as a prisoner. She wore a shapeless grey jacket, a black skirt and a soft cloche hat, pulled down over her eyes. She covered her hair because showing it would be immodest for an ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman. Leifer covered half her face as well, to avoid looking at the many cameras in the courtroom.
Anyone who thought that day might signify a change of pace in one of Israel’s longest running extradition cases was destined to be disappointed.
Leifer, charged with 74 child sex offences in Australia, has spent almost seven years making every effort to avoid being extradited back to Melbourne. Aggressive defence lawyers have focused on her mental state instead of the alleged crimes, which include sexual assault and rape, in a series of attempts to have her declared unfit to stand trial. The case has made her notorious in both Australia and Israel, and has damaged diplomatic ties between the two countries. Israel’s justice system has been tarnished by accusations of political interference, and Israeli police have recommended criminal charges against a cabinet minister for his involvement in this case.
Moreover, as the case drags on, it has magnified the suffering of three Australian women, Leifer’s accusers, who never reach closure about the events they allege happened more than a decade ago, when they were still schoolgirls.
The sect protects its own
Malka Leifer is connected to an extreme
