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The ruling by the Jerusalem District Court that Malka Leifer is mentally fit to stand trial marks a long-awaited and long-overdue milestone in the quest to bring her to face justice in Australia.

Six years after Australia applied to extradite her, there are still legal hurdles to overcome.  The extra­di­tion hearing itself will now have to proceed in Israel and there will also be rights of appeal.   If the Israeli courts ulti­mately permit her extra­di­tion, there may be com­plic­a­tions in trans­port­ing her to Australia due to the pandemic.  For far too long justice has been delayed and denied for Dassi Erlich, Nicole Meyer, Elly Sapper and Malka Leifer’s other alleged victims.  We have moved closer to that goal, but we are not there yet.

Through­out the Jewish community in Australia, and in the wider community, the latest court decision will be welcomed. It hopefully marks the end of the scan­dal­ous man­oeuv­rings that have marred the judicial process in Israel in this case: the unex­plained reversals of testimony by Jerusalem District Psy­chi­at­rist Jacob Charnes about Malka Leifer’s mental fitness; the recom­mend­a­tion by Israeli police that Yaakov Litzman be charged with manip­u­lat­ing psy­chi­at­ric evidence in the case while he was Israel’s Deputy Health Minister; the evidence that Malka Leifer has been malinger­ing; and the seemingly never-ending rounds of psy­chi­at­ric assess­ments.

Despite all the previous mis-steps and unwar­ran­ted delays, there is now optimism that justice will ulti­mately be done in this case.

Contact
Peter Wertheim | Co-CEO
ph: 02 8353 8505 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 588
e: [email protected]| www.ecaj.org.au