New accusations surface against Malka Leifer, alleging abuse in Israel

By URI BOLLAG

Published: AUGUST 7, 2019 15:49

Malka Leifer is brought to court last week (photo credit: REUTERS) — Malka Leifer is brought to court last week

(photo credit: REUTERS)

The victim said that in one instance she was invited to Leifer's home, but that she suffered from a black out of what exactly happened there.

New allegations have surfaced against accused child molester Malka Leifer, alleging that she committed sexual abuse against minors in Israel before moving to Australia about 20 years ago.

Australia has requested that Israel extradite Leifer for 74 counts of child sexual abuse that she allegedly committed in Australia.

KAN News reported on Monday night that a former student of Leifer’s, from the time she was teaching at a Gur Hassidic school in Bnei Brak, told the news station that the teacher would take her for private talks to the bomb shelter and caress her leg.

The victim said that in one instance she was invited to Leifer’s home, but that she suffered from a black out of what exactly happened there. All the woman remembered from the time was fleeing from the house and trying to forget those years, she told KAN.

Leifer’s lawyer responded to the new allegations by saying that the Israeli court was only dealing with the question of whether to extradite her and does not investigate the truthfulness of the accusations.

The case against Leifer rose to the forefront again two weeks ago, after police questioned Deputy Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman over possible interference, alleging that he helped her avoid extradition to Australia by pressuring a psychiatrist to provide her with a false medical report.

Leifer is accused of sexually abusing girls in an ultra-Orthodox school in Melbourne. She fled Australia days before the sexual abuse charges against her were brought up and has stayed in Israel ever since. Israeli authorities, who originally arrested and sought to extradite her, released her to house arrest after the defendant claimed that her mental state did not allow her to stand trial or serve a prison sentence.

But private investigators funded by Jewish Community Watch, an organization working to combat child sexual abuse in the Jewish community, followed Leifer in her hometown of Emmanuel and showed how she was leading a normal life, in contrast to the claims she made about her state. She was subsequently rearrested in February 2018 and has been in custody since.