Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In 2008 Dassi Erlich and a number of other students at the ultra-orthodox Jewish girls school Adass Israel in Melbourne disclosed they had been sexually abused by Malka Leifer, the school principal. Almost immediately, Leifer fled to Israel, with the assistance of the school board. She was later charged in Victorian courts with 74 counts of sexual assault and rape. In 2014 the Australian government applied for Leifer's extradition back to Australia to face these charges, but so far she has managed to avoid extradition, on the basis that she is not mentally fit to stand trial. It is now nearly four years since those Victorian charges. Perhaps the Israeli judicial system and the Israeli Minister of Justice might consider having an independent psychiatric panel re-evaluate Ms Leifer's ability to go before an extradition hearing in Israel and be returned to Australia to face those very grave charges.

Yesterday I met Dassi Erlich, who is one of my constituents. She has also met with the PM, in the company of the former Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu, who has done a good job in assisting her. My friend Merav Michaeli, a member of the Israeli Knesset who was recently here, has held a press conference in Israel with Dassi and has drawn a great deal of attention to this outrageous case in the Israeli system. A number of us will meet with Ayelet Shaked, the Israeli justice minister, when we are at the Beersheba commemoration, to press Dassi Erlich's concerns and to see if a fair and independent evaluation of the accused person can see that she is brought back to Australia.

The absconded principal should be returned to Australia, a country friendly to Israel, to face charges against her by Dassi Erlich and a number of other young women who were sexually abused. It is most unfair that Dassi Erlich has been left hanging with these issues that still oppress her and a number of other young women in my electorate. Only via a proper trial, with Ms Leifer facing a Victorian court, can these issues be properly addressed. I'm hoping that the pressure that friends in the Knesset have mounted will see that this issue has a much higher priority in Israel. I also hope that the delegations of people—including the Prime Minister, me, Mark Dreyfus and others—going over there for the commemoration of the charge of Beersheba will help bring justice for Dassi Erlich and the other young women who were so badly treated.