Lawyers for accused paedophile Malka Leifer want the medical reports of one of the former school principal’s alleged victims that were used in a previous civil trial.
BICOM
28th May 2021
The Telegraph report that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has won the country’s presidential election with 95.1 per cent of the vote. Parliamentary speaker Hammouda Sabbagh announced the results yesterday, claiming that voter turnout was close to 79 per cent. Opposition parties called the election a farce. Meanwhile, the US and European countries said the election was not free or fair.
The Independent reports that al-Assad cast his ballot in the town of Douma, a former rebel stronghold that was the site of a chemical weapons attack in 2018.
Ido Vock writes for
The New Statesman about how Syria’s presidential election is “a sham exercise in a ruined country” noting that “democratic politics is meaningless in the roughly two-thirds of Syria governed by Assad’s regime”.
Health Minister Yaakov Litzman at a press conference on January 17, 2020. (Flash90)
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced Thursday that he has decided to indict Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman of the United Torah Judaism party for obstruction of justice and breach of trust, pending a hearing.
The pending charges relate to suspicions that Litzman used his former position as deputy health minister to prevent the extradition to Australia of Malka Leifer, a former principal of an Orthodox girls school in Melbourne accused of sexually assaulting minors (Leifer was recently extradited after a yearslong saga); and to prevent the closure of a deli cited for health violations.
Yaakov Litzman to be indicted subject to hearing
Minister of Housing and Construction Litzman, formerly Deputy Minister of Health, is suspected of obstruction of justice and breach of faith.
Minister of Housing and Construction Yaakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) will be indicted, subject to a hearing. The Jerusalem District Attorney s Office informed the minister s attorneys today that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit was considering indicting him om charges of obstruction of justice and breach of faith, subject to a hearing that will be held for him should he so wish. Litzman allegedly used his status and ministerial powers when he was Deputy Minister of Health to promote interests of private individuals out of extraneous considerations and against the interests which he was responsible for safeguarding.
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Litzman is also suspected of trying to prevent the closure of a delicatessen whose owners were close to him, even though it was found to be in severe violation of health regulations. Both incidents took place while he was heading the Health Ministry rather than his current ministry.
In a letter informing Litzman’s attorneys of the decision, the Jerusalem prosecution wrote that he is suspected of “abusing his governmental power for extraneous considerations and contrary to the interests he was charged with upholding as deputy health minister.”
During the court hearings on Leifer’s extradition, her lawyers claimed she was unfit to stand trial. The draft indictment against Litzman says that after Leifer contacted him for help, he twice pressured the Jerusalem district psychiatrist to change his opinion that Leifer was fit to stand trial – once in 2015 and again in 2018, when the court asked the psychiatrist for an u