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Woman receives get after threatening criminal action
Rifka Meyer, who runs a sheitel business in Golders Green, had been waiting for nine years for her religious divorce
September 24, 2020 14:08
Rifka Meyer, who runs a sheitel business in Golders Green, had been waiting for nine years for her religious divorce
September 24, 2020 14:08A London woman finally received her get this week after threatening to take her husband to court for coercive and controlling behaviour.
Rifka Meyer, who runs a sheitel business in Golders Green, had been waiting for nine years for her religious divorce from Yossi Elkouby.
It is the second time that lawyers in the UK have wielded the threat of a criminal case to help free a Jewish woman from her marriage after their innovative use of the law earlier this year.
Four years ago the London Beth Din issued notices urging synagogues in London and Paris to deny Mr Elkouby entry until he gave his wife a get.
Last month Ms Meyer turned to solicitor Gary Lesin-Davis and QC Anthony Metzer, who warned Mr Elkouby he could face criminal proceedings.
Earlier this year, another London woman received a get after the two law-yers helped her launch a prosecution against her ex-husband. He agreed to the religious divorce rather than go to trial facing the risk of a five-year jail term.
Mr Lesin-Davis and Mr Metzer said they were “delighted that we were able to bring finality to Rifka’s long battle for justice and her release from her nightmare.
“The offence of controlling behaviour in a familial relationship can provide a powerful remedy to protect vulnerable women whose treatment by recalcitrant husbands strays into criminal offending.”
They said, “In this case, the get refusal involved a serious restriction on the liberty of the victim and was clearly behaviour designed to control and undermine her, keeping her in an intimate relationship against her will and preventing her from re-marrying.”
But Mr Elkouby denied that the warning over prosecution had any influence on his decision, saying that “this subject was hardly discussed — it was not relevant at this final stage. My mind was made up a long time ago that I wanted to give my wife a get.”
The good feeling he would derive from “giving a willing kosher, unconditional get was simply going to outweigh any potential compromises that up until now was the cause of this unnecessary delay,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”
Ms Meyer, who has started an organisation called GETT Out, plans to help other women in the same situation as she was in.
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