Former principal of elite Jewish school wanted in Melbourne on 74 child sex charges allowed to walk free in Israel because she's 'not mentally fit' to be extradited to Australia
Daily Mail Australia
Leith Huffadine
2 June 2016
Adass Israel School in Melbourne, where Malka Leifer was principal. She's accused of sexually abusing girls who were pupils at the school
- Former principal of elite Melbourne Jewish school accused of sex abuse
- Malka Leifer fled Australia to Israel in 2008 after she was accused
- She was arrested and put on house arrest by authorities in 2014
- She was freed after a report said she was mentally ill and can't face court
The former principal of an elite ultra-orthodox Jewish school has been allowed to walk free despite being wanted on 74 child sex charges.
Malka Leifer is wanted by Victorian police for 74 charges of indecent assault and rape allegedly involving girls at the Adass Israel School in Melbourne, but a judge in Israel, where she fled in 2008 after being accused, has ruled she's not mentally fit to be extradited to Australia, the ABC reported.
According to the report, Leifer has avoided 10 extradition proceedings in the past two years, claiming she suffers panic attacks and is too unwell to face court.
Malka Leifer, who fled Australia for Israel in 2008
After a psychiatrist's report released on Thursday said she was mentally unwell and after a judge said she couldn't face extradition, her house arrest in Israel will be lifted.
She doesn't have to face an extradition hearing until after she's completed psychiatric treatment - which could last years, according to the ABC.
The decision has stunned Australian authorities and those campaigning to seek justice for the alleged victims, including Australian-Israeli victim advocate Manny Waks.
He said: 'Some of Leifer's alleged victims feel devastated and completely let down by Israel's legal system,' according to the ABC.
The Israeli prosecutor's office has been given 72 hours to appeal, and is expected to do so.
In April, a woman who alleged she'd been sexually abused by Leifer spoke out for the first time.
She told ABC Lateline how she still struggled daily with consequences of the alleged abuse, which happened over a three-year period at school and on camps.
She doesn't have to face an extradition hearing until after she's completed psychiatric treatment - which could last years, according to the ABC.
The decision has stunned Australian authorities and those campaigning to seek justice for the alleged victims, including Australian-Israeli victim advocate Manny Waks.
He said: 'Some of Leifer's alleged victims feel devastated and completely let down by Israel's legal system,' according to the ABC.
The Israeli prosecutor's office has been given 72 hours to appeal, and is expected to do so.
In April, a woman who alleged she'd been sexually abused by Leifer spoke out for the first time.
She told ABC Lateline how she still struggled daily with consequences of the alleged abuse, which happened over a three-year period at school and on camps.
Australian-Israeli victim advocate Manny Waks (pictured) said Leifer's alleged victims were 'devastated' by the decision
The woman said when she first spoke about the abuse she wasn't believed and was told to keep quiet.
Eventually a second victim came forward, but within hours of the allegations being made, Leifer fled Australia with her family in the middle of the night.
She was arrested and put under house arrest six years later, in 2014, following an extradition request from Australia.
Originally published at Daily Mail Australia.