Malka Leifer is a former Melbourne School Principal and accused paedophile. She faces 74 counts of sexual assault in Victoria. Leifer left Australia when the allegations against her surfaced in 2008 and has remained in Israel since. More than six years have passed since a request was filed in the Jerusalem District Court to declare Leifer extradited to Australia. The Israel’s Supreme Court threw out Leifer’s last appeal, and Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn will now sign the extradition order without delay. 

What is Extradition?

Extradition occurs where a person has committed an offence in one jurisdiction (as Leifer has done in Victoria, Australia) but has then moved into another jurisdiction (as Leifer has done, by leaving Australia for Israel, in 2008).

Jurisdiction means the body who has the official power to make legal decisions and judgements. Extradition involves one jurisdiction physically sending a person charged with crime offence, back to the jurisdiction in which the crime was committed. This has to happen, in order for law enforcement of the jurisdiction in which the crime was committed, to deal with the charges against the person under their own laws.

Extradition requires cooperation between the jurisdictions and is generally governed by pre-existing arrangements made between the jurisdictions involved. The jurisdiction in which the offending occurred, will typically make a formal request to the other jurisdiction to arrest the person in question and subject them to its extradition process. Such extradition processes differ according to the laws of each jurisdiction