Disgraced politician Salim Mehajer eyes release from prison on parole

Disgraced former politician Salim Mehajer is facing a fight to be released from prison later this year, having spent nearly five years behind bars.

Mehajer is serving a seven-year and nine-month prison term for domestic violence offences after a judge found him guilty of suffocating a woman and threatening to put a “bullet” in her mother’s head.

Mehajer will be eligible for release on parole on July 18 after serving 3½ years in jail.

The former property developer has been in prison since November 2020 when he was jailed for lying to a court and has served back-to-back sentences for multiple offences.

His matter was considered at a meeting of the State Parole Authority in May and a Community Corrections pre-release report has recommended that Mehajer be released on conditional parole with supervision.

However, it’s understood that the Commissioner of Corrective Services has submitted that Mehajer is an “offender of interest” and wishes to make submissions about his possible release on parole.

Mehajer will now appear before a public parole hearing on June 12 when his release will be considered.

He was jailed in late 2020 after he was found guilty of two counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of making a false statement under oath.

The case centred on the former Auburn deputy mayor’s lies in affidavits and under cross-examination that he used to secure relaxed bail conditions.

In 2023, Mehajer was again found guilty in separate trials for unrelated fraud and domestic violence matters.

Mehajer was sentenced to a maximum of seven years and nine months in jail for both sets of matters.

He was found guilty by a jury of multiple counts of assault, one count of intimidation and one count of suffocatiion relating to his abuse of an ex-partner.

He was found guilty of assaulting the woman by punching her in the head during an argument in his car, squeezing her hand and crushing her phone that she was holding as well as threatening to kill her mother.

The following month, he was found guilty by a jury of two counts each of making a false document and using a false document.

He was found to have created false documents by forging the signatures of his solicitor, Zali Burrows, and sister.

Last year, Mehajer pleaded guilty to his role in a bizarre staged car crash in an attempt to duck a court appearance.

He pleaded guilty to 22 charges, including perverting the course of justice, making a false representation resulting in a police investigation, making a false call for an ambulance and negligent driving.

He admitted to staging the car accident in Sydney’s west in October 2017, with the court hearing that Mehajer orchestrated the incident in a bid to delay his court appearance for an unrelated criminal matter for assaulting a taxi driver.

He was sentenced to a maximum of two years for the offences, with a non-parole period of 16 months.