A former principal of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Australia was found guilty Monday by Australian justice of the rape and sexual assault of a minor involving two of her students, fifteen years after trying to escape her arrest while fleeing to Israel.
Malka Leifer, a former religious studies teacher and principal of the Adass Israel School in Melbourne, South East, was found guilty of 18 counts, including raping a student in her home and sexually assaulting a student. her sister on a class trip.
She was cleared of nine other counts.
Ms Leifer, who has always maintained her innocence, sat with her hands crossed and stared straight ahead as the verdict was read.
“Lessons from kallah”
According to the indictment, Ms Leifer raped a student in 2006 after inviting her to sleep over for “
kallah lessons
”, a kind of pre-wedding etiquette class.
She has on several occasions told students that she is grooming them to be wives, according to prosecutor Justin Lewis' briefing.
“
It will help you on your wedding night
,” she allegedly told a student after a sexual assault.
Ms Leifer's abuse "
held us hostage for many years
", said one of the victims, Dassi Erlich.
"
Today we can start to take back the power she stole from us when we were children
," she told reporters outside the court.
His sister, Elly Sapper, said justice has been served, "
although today's verdict may not accurately reflect
" the abuse suffered.
Sisters Elly Sapper, Nicole Meyer and Dassi Erlich speak to the media outside court in Melbourne on April 3, 2023 after the trial.
WILLIAM WEST / AFP
At the end of this seven-week trial in Victoria State Court and a week of deliberations, the jury found Ms Leifer guilty of sexually assaulting two of the three sisters.
With dual Australian and Israeli nationality, the now 50-year-old mother of eight fled Australia for Israel after a complaint was filed in 2008 and settled with her family in the Immanuel settlement in the West Bank. .
Read alsoAustralia comes under total Labor domination
Six years of legal battle
Australian authorities requested his extradition in 2014. A first procedure failed in 2016 when Ms Leifer was declared by experts unfit to stand trial after being hospitalized in psychiatry.
An investigation then questioned these conclusions.
She was arrested in February 2018.
She arrived in Melbourne in January 2021 after the Israeli Supreme Court rejected her appeal at the end of 2020, ending a six-year legal battle in Israel, in particular to determine whether she was feigning mental illness in order to escape extradition.
The three sisters, Nicole Meyer, Dassis Erlich and Elly Sapper, had themselves publicly disclosed their identities to seek the indictment of Ms. Leifer.
Defense barrister Ian Hill previously said Ms Leifer denied "
all criminal acts alleged by each of the complainants
" and that her interactions with the pupils were "
professional and proper
".
