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Malka Leifer, Australian day school principal convicted of child sex abuse, sentenced to 15 years
(JTA) — Malka Leifer, a former principal at an Australian school for Orthodox girls who was convicted in April of abusing students in her care, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The sentencing marks a conclusion to a 15-year saga that at times strained relations between Australia and Israel, where Leifer fled in 2008 amid allegations that she had abused students at Melbourne’s Adass Israel School for haredi Orthodox girls.
She was not extradited to Australia until 2021, following a sustained campaign by three sisters who said Leifer had abused them. The sisters — Dassi Erlich, Elly Sapper and Nicole Meyer — were in court to hear the sentence handed down, according to local media reports, while Leifer watched via video from a high-security women’s prison.
Leifer was convicted of 18 of 27 charges; she was acquitted of the charges related to Meyer. She will spend a minimum of 11.5 years in prison.
“I am satisfied that the sentence matches the severity of the offending,” said Daniel Aghion, president of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, the Australian state where Melbourne is located, in a statement. “On behalf of the JCCV, I express an overwhelming sense of relief that this process has concluded. Every person in the Victorian Jewish community has a responsibility to do our utmost to protect children from harm. We stand with Dassi, Nicole and Elly, whose courage and tenacity is an example to us all.”
The judge who set the sentence said he had weighed Leifer’s lack of remorse — she has always denied the allegations against her — and her efforts to avoid prosecution, which included exaggerating her mental and physical health challenges in Israel.
Last year, a former Israeli government minister, Yaakov Litzman, admitted to abusing his powers to try to protect Leifer from prosecution. Litzman, a haredi Orthodox politician, resigned from Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, and was sentenced to probation and a nominal fine as part of his plea deal. While the Australian court heard accounts about how board members at Adass Israel helped Leifer flee to Israel before she could be arrested in Melbourne, Australian authorities said in April that they would not charge anyone there with aiding Leifer’s flight, citing a lack of evidence.
“This is a momentous day, not only for those who survived Malka Leifer’s abuse but also for the cause of justice,” Peter Wertheim, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said in a statement about the sentence. “We sincerely hope the survivors can find some closure after so many years of being denied justice.”
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Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi lays a wreath as he visits the burial site of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran alongside a member of an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters and the Iraqi group said on Saturday.
The source identified the Hezbollah member as Abu Ali Khalil, who had served as a bodyguard for Hezbollah’s slain chief Hassan Nasrallah. The source said Khalil had been on a religious pilgrimage to Iraq when he met up with a member of the Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada group.
They traveled together to Tehran and were both killed in an Israeli strike there, along with Khalil’s son, the senior security source said. Hezbollah has not joined in Iran’s air strikes against Israel from Lebanon.
Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada published a statement confirming that both the head of its security unit and Khalil had been killed in an Israeli strike.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli aerial attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September.
Israel and Iran have been trading strikes for nine consecutive days since Israel launched attacks on Iran, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran has said it does not seek nuclear weapons.
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Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip
Israeli soldiers operate during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), in cooperation with the General Security Service (Shin Bet), announced on Friday the killing of Ibrahim Abu Shamala, a senior financial official in Hamas’ military wing.
The operation took place on June 17th in the central Gaza Strip.
Abu Shamala held several key positions, including financial officer for Hamas’ military wing and assistant to Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing until his elimination in March 2024.
He was responsible for managing all the financial resources of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, overseeing the planning and execution of the group’s war budget. This involved handling and smuggling millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip to fund Hamas’ military operations.
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Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei named three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him should he be killed, the New York Times reported on Saturday citing unnamed Iranian officials. It is understood the Ayatollah fears he could be assassinated in the coming days.
Khamenei reportedly mostly speaks with his commanders through a trusted aide now, suspending electronic communications.
Khamenei has designated three senior religious figures as candidates to replace him as well as choosing successors in the military chain of command in the likely event that additional senior officials be eliminated.
Earlier on Saturday Israel confirmed the elimination of Saeed Izadi and Bhanam Shahriari.
Shahriari, head of Iran’s Quds Force Weapons Transfer Unit, responsible for arming Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, was killed in an Israeli airstrike over 1,000 km from Israel in western Iran.
The post Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors first appeared on Algemeiner.com.