Jerusalem woman suspected of starving son skips psychiatric test

A Jerusalem woman suspected of starving her toddler skipped an appointment for psychiatric evaluation Sunday, violating the condition on which she had been released to house arrest.

Jerusalem Magistrate's Court judge Shulamit Dotan subsequently called an urgent hearing to discuss the matter. The woman's lawyer participated in the session, as did the deputy health minister, Yaakov Litzman, who paid half the suspect's NIS 400,000 bail.

The lawyer, Reuven Bar-Haim, told the judge that his client missed the appointment because she did not feel well. He said the psychiatrist who came to examine her was convinced that he could not conduct the evaluation, and, as such, decided to postpone it.

Dotan initially ruled that the woman would undergo the evaluation Monday. But the suspect's lawyer asked that the hearing be deferred by two days after it emerged that Rabbi Avraham Freulich, the ultra-Orthodox leader to whose home the suspect was released, was not present.

Bar-Haim said the deferral was necessary in order to the opinion of Freulich, who was absent due to personal reasons.

Dotan acceded to his request, and the evaluation will indeed be apparently postponed for two days. The evaluation will seek to determine whether the suspect suffers from Munchausen Syndrome by proxy and whether she is fit to stand trial.

The arrest of the woman sparked a wave of riots in Jerusalem last week, the city's worst in recent years.

The boy, who weighs about seven kilograms, is hospitalized in serious condition.