Image: AAP Image/Dean Lewins
By CHRISTINE LAI
Former Auburn Deputy Mayor Salim Mehajer has been found guilty of six domestic abuse charges after a three-week trial. The disgraced former mayor of Auburn City Council was accused of several acts of violence including choking his then-partner until she fell unconscious and threatening to kill her and her family.
He was charged with three counts of common assault, intimidation intending to cause fear and physical harm, intentional choking and assault occasioning actual bodily harm with an alternate charge of common assault.
Mehajer pleaded not guilty to the charges and represented himself in trial in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court following his inability to attain financial assistance to pay for legal representation, as reported by 9 News.
The NSW District Court jury deliberated for five hours on Wednesday before submitting a guilty verdict to the judge.
According to The Guardian, the victim alleged that Mehajer punched the woman in the head ten times while in his car, squeezed her hand to the point where her phone screen cracked, and covered her mouth and nose with his hand, preventing her from breathing until she passed out on several occasions over a period of three years.
While representing himself, Mehajer was required to question the victim through a third party after she had provided evidence before a closed court, where the former deputy accused her of fabricating the events.
Mehajer told the jury that the victim was “tangled within her own web of lies”, declaring that the screenshots of the text correspondence between the pair were fake and she had photoshopped bruises in images provided to the court.
Prior convictions of electoral fraud
In 2018, Mehajer was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment, to be released after serving 11 months following a court decision that ruled he had committed 77 offences of electoral fraud.
The former deputy mayor and his sister Fatima Mehajer were charged with submitting 77 online applications to enrol or update voter details, which contained false address information, to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) in the lead-up to the 2012 Auburn City Council election.
The enrolment applications related to Salim and Fatima Mehajer, members of their family, and the general public.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecution (CDPP) charged Mehajer with:
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51 counts of using a forged document to dishonestly influence, contrary to sections 145.1(1) and 11.2A of the Criminal Code (Cth) and,
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26 counts of giving false or misleading information to a Commonwealth entity, contrary to -sections 137.1(1) and 11.2A of the Criminal Code (Cth).