Breaking silence on Leifer allegations, Litzman says 'everything was legal'

Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman breaks his silence about the allegations that he used his position to help a wanted pedophile avoid extradition to Australia, saying his intervention in the case was “for the good of the public.”

“I have a lot to say, but I cannot speak about it. It was all for the good of the public, everything was legal,” Litzman says at an opening ceremony for the new children’s ward at Ashkelon’s Barzilai Hospital.

Police suspect the chairman of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party coerced state psychiatrists into issuing false medical assessments to stop the extradition proceedings against Malka Leifer, an Israeli citizen wanted on 74 charges of child sexual abuse in Australia.