
Israel’s Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of Malka Leifer, paving the way for her extradition to Australia.
The ruling of the three-judge panel on Wednesday was unanimous in backing a lower court ruling that Leifer was fit for extradition proceedings. The Jerusalem District Court had ruled in May that those proceedings should be reopened.
On Sept. 21, the district court will rule whether Leifer can be extradited based on the facts of the case.
A panel of state psychiatrists determined in January that Leifer was fit for extradition. Earlier evaluations had found her too unstable to be deported.
Leifer, 53, fled to Israel from Australia in 2008 amid allegations that she had sexually abused students when she was the principal at the Adass Yisroel school in Melbourne. Australia officially filed an extradition request in 2014 following her indictment on 74 counts of rape and sexual assault.
She was arrested that year and then released after claiming, and being deemed, mentally unfit for the legal proceedings. She was rearrested in 2018 after an undercover investigation found that she lived a normal life and was mentally fit to face extradition proceedings.