Police in Israel have arrested Malka Leifer, an Australian woman who is wanted in her home country on child sex abuse charges.
They said an undercover investigation had found “indications that the suspect was pretending to be suffering from a mental illness in order to avoid the extradition process”. She has been rearrested on suspicion of “obstruction of justice”.
“The Department for International Affairs will look into the process of having the suspect extradited to Australia,” it said.
Leifer has been living in a West Bank settlement for the past decade after a complaint was filed against her by a former student at a Jewish ultra-Orthodox school she ran in Melbourne. She is accused of dozens of cases of sexual abuse at the Adass Israel girls school.
She has denied the charges in previous extradition hearings and was admitted to hospital in 2016 after being declared unfit to stand trial.
