A former principal of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish girls’ school will stand trial on charges that she sexually assaulted students under her care, an Australian court ruled on Thursday. The decision came months after she was extradited from Israel, following strained relations between the two countries after a long exile battle.
Malka Leifer was initially charged with 74 sex offenses by Australian police in 2012, but a prosecuting attorney asked the court to withdraw four cases because the alleged crimes took place in Israel.
The magistrate; Johanna Metcalf, determined that “there was sufficient evidence to support a conviction for the rest of the offenses of which the accused have been charged.” Ms. Leifer, 55, pleaded not guilty to 70 counts concerning crimes that prosecutors said occurred between 2004 and 2008.
A trial date was not immediately set, but a hearing was scheduled for October 21. Ms. Leifer did not apply for bail and remained in prison. The Melbourne court delivered its verdict nearly two weeks after the testimony of 10 witnesses. They appeared via video link due to the outbreak of coronavirus in the city.
At the center of the case were three sisters – Maisie Ehrlich, Eli Sapper, and Nicole Meyer – who accused Ms. Leifer of sexually abusing her while she was the principal of Aedas Israel School in Melbourne. Although they have made their identities public, the sisters testified in a closed courtroom. Former staff members of the school and a police officer involved in the investigation also gave evidence.
Ms. Leifer, who appeared via video link from the Dame Phyllis Frost Center, a maximum-security women’s prison in Deer Park, a Melbourne suburb, remained largely silent during the proceedings, sat away from the cameras with her hand to cover her face.
At the end of the hearing, when asked how she pleaded, she raised her head and said, “No…not guilty.” Her lawyer did not immediately respond to an email or call seeking comment.
Ms. Leifer, an Israeli citizen, moved to Australia in 2001 and later became principal of Adas Israel. After details of the alleged attacks surfaced, she fled to Israel in 2008.
Australia requested her extradition in 2014 after a public campaign by the three sisters. The process was delayed when Ms. Leifer was initially found to be mentally unfit to be extradited, and the sluggish pace of the case drew criticism from Australian lawmakers against the Israeli system.
The case also embroiled an ultra-conservative Israeli government minister of the same sect as Ms. Leifer, Yaakov Litzman, who was a member of the cabinet of then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli police accused Mr. Litzman of pressuring psychiatrists to report that Ms. Leifer was not good enough to be tried.
But after a seven-year legal battle, in May 2020 an Israeli court ruled that she had pretended to have a mental illness for years and was fit to face extradition proceedings. She was deported to Australia in January this year.
Israeli news media later informed that the country’s attorney general; Avichai Mandelblit, had announced that he would accuse Mr. Litzman of obstruction of justice and breach of trust concerning Ms. Leifer’s case.
