PM caught on camera learning of Litzman probe: ‘You’re killing me’
Video shows Netanyahu speaking on phone as he’s told of suspicions UTJ leader tried to help alleged sex abuser avoid extradition. ‘It’s unbelievable,’ he says
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was caught on camera Thursday when he appeared to receive the news that Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, head of the United Torah Judaism party, had been questioned by police investigators on suspicions he sought to help an Australian former school principal avoid extradition.
“I don’t understand. What is he [presumably Litzman] suspected of? Who is he with? Does he have a lawyer? You don’t say,” the prime minister says in conversation with an unidentified person on the other end of the line.
The prime minister was filmed while in Warsaw for an international conference on the Middle East, and particularly the threat posed by Iran.
“How many hours already? It’s unbelievable,” Netanyahu says. “You’re killing me with this.”
למי אמר נתניהו בשיחת טלפון: ״כבר כמה שעות? אתה הורג אותי עכשיו״ | צפו בשיחה @gilicohen10 pic.twitter.com/0spoUE5RIA
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) February 14, 2019
Litzman’s UTJ is an important part of Netanyahu’s coalition, although lawmakers from the party have sparked numerous coalition crises over conscription legislation and public works on Shabbat.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked on Friday expressed concerns about the revelations regarding the deputy minister, but said that Litzman was “a partner in the government and a personal friend. I hope [the investigation] will end with nothing.”
Litzman is suspected of having sought to obtain a falsified psychiatric report that would have prevented Malka Leifer’s extradition to Australia on medical grounds, a Justice Ministry official confirmed to The Times of Israel. Leifer, the former head of an ultra-Orthodox girls school in Melbourne, is wanted on 74 charges of child sexual abuse in Australia.
Shaked said she would sign any extradition order for the suspected pedophile to be sent to Australia, and said that she had been in contact with the Australian ambassador and with one of the women accusing Leifer of abusing them, the Ynet news site reported.
The Justice Ministry official said police have recordings of Litzman and officials in his office speaking to health ministry officials and pressing them to act on Leifer’s behalf.
Leifer once taught at a school in Israel affiliated with the Gur Hasidic sect, of which Litzman is a member.
“Deputy Minister Litzman is confident in his innocence and will continue to assist [with] any request that comes to his office, in accordance with the law and existing regulations,” Litzman’s office said in a statement.
Leifer, an Israeli citizen, fled Australia to Israel in 2008, days before allegations of sexual abuse against her surfaced, following a heads-up from officials at the Adass Israel school where she taught.
After authorities in Melbourne filed charges against her, Australia officially filed an extradition request in 2012. Two years later, Leifer was arrested in Israel but released to house arrest shortly thereafter. Judges deemed her mentally unfit to stand trial and eventually removed all restrictions against her, concluding that she was too ill to even leave her bed.
She was rearrested last February following a police undercover operation that cast doubts on her claims regarding her mental state, and has remained under custody since. The operation was launched after the Jewish Community Watch NGO hired private investigators who placed hidden cameras in the Emmanuel settlement where Leifer had been living, which showed the alleged sex abuser roaming around the ultra-Orthodox town without any apparent difficulty.
After Leifer’s initial arrest in 2014, Jerusalem District psychiatrist Jacob Charnes submitted two psychiatric opinions deeming her mentally incompetent, which led to her release. After Leifer was re-arrested in February 2018, Charnes agreed to sign off — after months of delay — on a new medical evaluation that refuted his initial conclusion. However, in an about face at the latest extradition hearing last month, he testified against the determinations of several medical experts that found Leifer to be mentally competent and once again asserted that she was too sick to be sent back to Australia.
It was unclear whether Charnes was the medical expert that Litzman is alleged to have pressed to prevent Leifer’s extradition, but the district psychiatrist was appointed by the deputy health minister.
The 43rd hearing in the case against Leifer is slated to be held in March following numerous attempts by the 52-year-old’s defense team to thwart the process.
Upon a request from the alleged sex abuser’s attorney, a Jerusalem District Court judge agreed to hold a bail hearing on Tuesday.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.