Salim Mehajer makes Legal Aid application ahead of appeal
Mehajer, was released from prison on parole last month after five years behind bars. He was convicted of punching his ex-partner in the head during an argument in his car, squeezing her hand and crushing her phone that she was holding.
He was found guilty of suffocating her by putting his hand over her nose and mouth until she passed out and threatened to kill her mother.
Mehajer is fighting the domestic violence convictions and sentence in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal, claiming his trial was “defective� and unfair.
In the Supreme Court of Sydney on Thursday, Mehajer’s matter was briefly mentioned. The court was told the former Auburn mayor may change his legal representation.
A Legal Aid application has instead been made, the court was told.
Acting registrar Peter Clayton said the application was emailed to him by Mehajer on Thursday morning.
“I’ve made my position quite clear in this matter,� he said.
“The court has proposed the 17th of November and I don’t think based on the discourse that occurred between the bench and Mr Mehajer that that was an invitation to recraft the appeal in any substantive way.�
A week adjournment was granted for the Legal Aid application to be considered.
A hearing is also expected to take place on November 17.
A jury previously found Mehajer guilty of six charges, including assault, intimidation and suffocating, and he was later found guilty of forging the signatures of Zali Burrows, who was his solicitor at the time, and his sister during a separate trial.
He was sentenced to a maximum of seven years and nine months in jail for the domestic violence and fraud offences but was released from prison on July 18 upon the expiry of his non-parole period.
Mehajer is arguing his non-parole period was “manifestly excessive�, and there was a “striking discrepancy� between the custodial conditions the sentencing judge believed he’d be subject to and what he actually faced behind bars.
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