Woman wanted in Australia for sex crimes remanded in Israel

An Australian woman accused of sex crimes against children in her home country appeared before an Israeli judge this afternoon who ordered her to remain in custody a day after her arrest.

Australia wants the 54-year-old extradited. She is wanted there for sexually abusing children while she was a teacher at a local school.

Israel launched an undercover investigation at the request of Interpol, and police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the woman was arrested yesterday on suspicion of obstructing court proceedings by attempting to hide evidence.

An Israeli court had previously stopped extradition proceedings against Leifer after determining she was not fit to stand trial. But police say they have indications she was pretending to be suffering from a mental illness to avoid extradition and a new extradition order would be handed down.

“Based on new evidence that is being found, both by the Israeli police as well as social services, we believe that she can stand trial and all of the documents that she had in fact presented over the last few years were fake documents and the psychological analysis that were given were incorrect and inaccurate, ” Rosenfeld says.

— AP