An Israeli woman accused of molesting several girls while serving as principal of the Charedi Adass Yisroel girls’ school in Melbourne has been found mentally competent and fit to undergo an extradition hearing.
Jerusalem’s District Psychiatrist submitted two reports yesterday asserting that Malka Leifer, 54, is fit to face a hearing despite her longstanding claim that she suffers from crippling anxiety issues that would prevent her from being tried.
Leifer fled to Israel in 2008 amid allegations that she had sexually abused students. She is wanted on 74 charges of child sexual abuse in Melbourne.
In the beginning of July she lost an appeal for release to house arrest during extradition proceedings, the same day that an Australian newspaper quoted an Israeli man as saying she molested his daughter. She had previously missed several court appearances by saying she was feeling unwell. She was arrested in February after an undercover investigation found that she lived a normal life and was mentally fit to face extradition proceedings.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported last month that a resident of Emmanuel, the Charedi Samaria town where Leifer lives with her husband and 10 children, has alleged that she sexually molested his daughter while tutoring her in religious studies.
The man, identified as Daniel, told the newspaper he saw her touching another girl as well and alleged that she lures children into her apartment by offering them food, or to tutor them for free.
Posting on Facebook on Monday, Dassi Erlich, one of the students allegedly molested, wrote that her “abuser Malka Leifer has played the court system for 10 years,” adding the hashtag #nomoredelays.
