ISRAEL
Jerusalem Post
Malka Leifer, a dual Israeli-Australian national, fled to Israel in 2008 after she was accused of engaging in sexual behavior with eight students at an Australian school where she was principle.
A Jerusalem judge on Sunday ordered that a haredi woman at the center of an Australian sexual abuse scandal must undergo psychiatric evaluation to determine if she is fit to be extradited, ABC News Australia reported.
Malka Leifer, a dual Israeli-Australian national, fled to Israel in 2008 after she was accused of engaging in sexual behavior with eight students at the Adass Israel School in Elsternwick, where she was principal. She was arrested in 2014 and sentenced to house arrest pending extradition but has managed to fend off any further action, exhibiting panic attacks prior to multiple hearings and claiming that she is “mentally unfit” to take part in the judicial proceedings.
Late last year Australian media reported that Adass Israel may face a criminal investigation due to the role that its board members played in spiriting Leifer out of the country. In September, a local court found the school liable in a civil suit, ordering it to pay more than a million dollars to one of the victims.
In his ruling on Sunday, Judge Amnon Cohen called for the accused to undergo further mental examinations.
“This seems to be a big game. A strategy on her behalf. We don’t need to be Einsteins to work out what is happening here,” former Australian ultra-orthodox sexual abuse victim and survivors’ advocate Manny Waks told ABC outside the court on Sunday.
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