Man who faked marriage denies election death threats
Over a decade ago, Musher Saleh had his permanent residency revoked after immigration officials uncovered false marriage claims.
The 43-year-old is now accused of sending death threats to Australian Migrants candidate Jamal Daoud at his Liverpool office in Sydney's southwest on May 1 and 2.
The Merrylands man appeared before Parramatta Local Court on Wednesday where he pleaded not guilty to one count of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.
"I didn't," he told reporters outside court when asked whether he had made death threats.
"I never do that."
Mr Daoud told AAP that his office had been called repeatedly by someone speaking in Arabic in the final days of the election.
The migration agent claimed Saleh told him something like "I know where you are, I will come and get you and I will show you what I can do to you".
"In Arabic, 'I will get you' in this way - it is a death threat," Mr Daoud told AAP.
He said he would send a letter to Immigration Minister Tony Burke to see why Saleh still remained in Australia despite his past.
Entering Australia on a business visa in 2001, Saleh was granted permanent residency in May 2013, according to a 2018 decision from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
The Palestinian man had his permanent residency revoked in August 2017 after immigration officials learned he had supplied false details about a claimed ongoing marriage to an Australian citizen.
Two months later, he purchased a fried chicken shop in Auburn in Sydney's west and was promoting it on social media until 2024.
Saleh failed to notify immigration that his marriage had broken down before being granted residency and that he had formed a new relationship with a Norwegian national instead, the tribunal found.
In upholding the decision to revoke his permanent residency, the tribunal found Saleh had "consistently been untruthful" and made "deliberate falsehoods" to gain Australian citizenship.
"The applicant's interactions with the department have been dictated by what he desired to gain and not by what his obligations required him to do," tribunal senior member Kira Raif wrote.
"The applicant appears to have very little remorse about his actions."
Ms Raif agreed that the Merrylands man would experience hardship if his visa was revoked and he returned to Gaza, but noted that he could apply to live in Norway as his partner had citizenship there.
On Wednesday, Mr Burke did not respond by deadline to AAP's questions about why Saleh still resided in Australia.
Mr Daoud ran for independent party Australian Migrants in Werriwa, Sydney during the 2025 federal election after standing for Clive Palmer's United Australia Party at the 2022 election.
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