NEW YORK (VINnews) — The trial of Malka Leifer, a former chareidi girls’ school principal accused of abusing her students in Melbourne, commenced Tuesday, two years after she was extradited to Australia from Israel, where she fled in order to evade prosecution 15 years ago.
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A court in Israel initially declared her unfit to stand trial but after a long period in which she lived an apparently normal life in the town of Emmanuel, she was rearrested after media and police scrutiny of her behavior and, after numerous delays and court cases regarding her mental state, extradited in January 2021.
Since then, several preliminary hearings have been held and a Melbourne court deemed Leifer fit to stand trial. She is charged with 70 sexual offenses with accusations from at least eight alleged victims, and has remained jailed without bond for the past two years.
The initial session Tuesday focused on jury selection, with some 80 potential jurors being presented to both sides. The list was then whittled down to 15 permanent members.
The case is being heard before Victoria County Court Judge Mark Gamble and is expected to last roughly six weeks.
On Wednesday the opening statements will be made and on Thursday the first complainants, sisters Dassi Erlich, Nicole Meyer and Elly Sapper, will be in the witness box.
“I’m relieved and delighted that this day has finally arrived and we look forward to some semblance of justice being served,” said Manny Waks, head of Voice Against Child Sexual Abuse, an Israeli-based organization fighting child abuse in the Jewish community.
“We stand in support of all those impacted by this trial,” he said.
The Leifer affair strained ties between Israel and Australia, with frustration peaking after it was revealed that Israel’s deputy health minister, Yaakov Litzman, was questioned by police on suspicion that he had been using his position to prevent Leifer’s extradition.
It was alleged that Litzman pressured doctors to falsify psychiatric evaluations that deemed Leifer unfit to stand trial, thereby preventing her extradition. Litzman claimed that everything he did was legal, and that he was acting “for the good of the public”. Like Leifer, Litzman is a Gur Hassid; it was revealed that Leifer had previously held a position at a school run by Gur in Israel
In April 2021, Israeli police recommended prosecution of Litzman for his actions to protect Leifer. In June 2022, Litzman resigned from the Knesset after he signed a plea agreement admitting breach of trust in January that year.
When will we stop hiding these people and sweeping their criminal behavior against Yiddishe Kinder under the rug.We are not the catholic church, do not allow this to continue.
About time!! Now let’s hope the sisters get the justice they deserve.
My 7 year old son came home and told me similar happened in the cheder To someone. I heard there is some blog or forum out there where we frumma put these names to earn others. Anyone have that url ?
Until she is proved guilty she is innocent, that’s the law!
And even if she is proven guilty by the court it doesn’t mean it actually happened.
I heard some time back from someone that knows these girls, that they have changed their story many times, and it’s more of a personal fight.
They fight with their mother too, and caused the death of their father, apparently they are despicable nasty ppl that do such things for a hobby, or maybe to earn some crying money, who knows?!
Amongst Gur her behavior might well be considered normal!
Mesirah to Arkaos – terrible chillul Hashem.