The courts recently rejected her last appeals attempting to block extradition. Nissenkorn's signature is the last step, from what I understand, necessary before sending her back to stand trial.
I thought I would be happy when this day would arrive. If this day would arrive. It was not a given. There were many obstacles and Leifer avoided facing justice for a long time with false claims of health and mental issues in attempts to avoid extradition, along with [alleged] political interference.
I thought I would be happy, but now that it is here, I am not. I think it is a sad day.
Not sad because I feel bad for Leifer.
It is a sad day that it has come to this. The entire situation is sad. What she did, the suffering of her victims [alleged] ,how she tried to avoid facing her accusers and justice, how she spent years hiding out besmirching the frum community by association, and even though extradition is necessary it is still sad that it has to happen.
This might be what has to happen, and she might (or might not) get what she deserves, but that does not necessarily make it a happy day. The entire situation is upsetting.
I titled this "sending Malka Leifer home" because of an interesting tidbit in the review of the final case. Ittay Flescher pointed out on FB the following:
Leifer’s lawyer Nick Kaufman claimed she shouldn’t be extradited to Israel as while she was in Australia she always saw herself as an Israeli, and even asked a teshuva about how many days of yom tov she should observe, with her Rav saying only one, unlike other Orthodox Australians who observe two. Therefore, Kaufman argued, the centre of her life was in Israel and serving a sentence in Australia would cause her additional pain.Judge Yitzchak Amit responded to this argument in point 22 of the judgement by saying he couldn’t accept that Leifer’s connection to Israel was so strong that her serving time in Australia would cause her “more than the usual” pain suffered by other prisoners. The evidence he gave for this assertion was that Leifer only chose to leave Australia after her alleged abuse was revealed, implying that had this not been revealed, she would have had no problem staying in Australia for many years longer.
So, Leifer is being sent home.
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Leaving aside that there are real halakhic opinions that anyone in chu"l should keep two days, one wonders whether any dispensation for Israelis lasts more than, say, a year. Leifer lived in Australia for eight.
ReplyDeleteWhat a tsadekes. Serving a prison term in chu"l would cause her additional pain. Gee, I am crying for her.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of when I was an intern at the federal prosecutor in Manhattan in the summer of 1995. Some Chassidishe crook was being sentenced, and his lawyer argued that he cannot be sent to prison.
Why? No kosher food.
But the Bureau of Prisons has a kosher meal program?
No, that relies on the OU hasgocha, which to him is treif, so it would be like forcing him to eat chazer. I am not making this up. (For some reason, he conceded that the only thing he could eat there was Cheerios and Matzoh.)
Unfortunately for him, the judge was himself an Orthodox Jew, and he said, "So live on Cheerios and Matzoh."