Salim Mehajer set to be released from jail after five years behind bars
Disgraced former politician Salim Mehajer is set to be released from prison after he was on Monday granted parole, with strict conditions including he not associate with outlaw bikies.
Mehajer will be released next month after the State Parole Authority on Tuesday handed down a decision to grant him parole on a long list of conditions.
In a hearing before the Authority earlier this month, the Commissioner of Corrective Services opposed his release, citing a risk of reoffending, his lack of attitudinal change and Mehajer's continued denial of some of his crimes.
This is despite a Community Corrections prerelease report recommending that Mehajer be released on conditional parole when he becomes eligible for release on July 18.
The parole board took into account that he had completed all possible programs in prison, determining his rehabilitation was better served in the community where he will be under the watch of a psychologist and community corrections officers.
Upon his release, he will have to be of good behaviour, report to a Community Corrections officer, participate in any domestic violence programs where directed, have ongoing treatment from a private psychologist and undergo drug and alcohol testing.
He is also banned from contacting his victim and entering The Central Coast.
As well, he must not have any communication with Outlaw Motorcycle Gang members or associates.
Mehajer is serving a seven-year and nine-month prison term for domestic violence offences against a former partner, as well as fraud for forging his lawyer's signature.
The former property developer and Auburn deputy mayor 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.
Mehajer was jailed in November 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 his 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 offences.
He was found guilty by a jury of multiple counts of assault, one count of intimidation and one count of suffocation 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, suffocating her by putting his hand over her nose and mouth until she passed out as well as threatening to kill the woman's 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 statutory declarations and affidavits 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, to which he later pleaded guilty.
He was sentenced to a maximum of two years for the crash offences, with a non-parole period of 16 months.
Mehajer will be released in July.
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