Australian court drops sex abuse charges against former Chabad youth leader

Aron “Ezzy” Kestecher

Aron 'Ezzy' Kestecher was accused of four counts of indecent acts with minors; Kestecher: 'It was Judaism that was the issue.'

Multiple charges against an Orthodox man associated with Chabad-Lubavitch in Melbourne have been dropped.

Aron “Ezzy” Kestecher, a 27-year-old former Chabad youth leader, was charged last year with four counts of indecent acts on a child under 16.

All four charges were withdrawn on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the Australian Department of Justice confirmed.

Kestecher revealed the news on Facebook, saying “All charges gone.”

In a later post he wrote: “I never lost hope in God. It was Judaism that was the issue.”

When contacted, Kestecher declined to comment.

The news comes just two weeks after David Cyprys, another Orthodox man associated with Chabad in Melbourne, was ordered to stand trial next July on 41 counts of child sex abuse.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against 12 alleged victims who were students at Yeshiva College in the 1980s. Three of them now live in America.

The college, which is in the same campus as the Chabad headquarters in Melbourne, has reassured parents it has the strictest protocols in place to safeguard their students.