Salim Mehajer jailed, sister Fatima spared custodial sentence over election fraud plot
Controversial Sydney businessman Salim Mehajer has been led away from court in handcuffs after being ordered to serve 11 months behind bars for electoral fraud. His sister Fatima has been spared jail and handed a good behaviour bond.
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CONTROVERSIAL Sydney businessman Salim Mehajer has been led away from court in handcuffs after being ordered to serve 11 months behind bars for electoral fraud.
The 32-year-old was allowed to take off his suit jacket to cover his handcuffs before being escorted out of the Downing Centre Local Court today.
Magistrate Beverley Schurr jailed him for 21 months, ordering he be released after 11 months and then placed on a $500 three-year good behaviour bond.
She previously had found him
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He was the only sibling to be elected and later became deputy mayor.
The magistrate said the offending “strikes at the heart of the democratic system and the integrity of the electoral roll”.
The magistrate sentenced Fatima Mehajer, who had pleaded guilty to the charges, to a two-month suspended jail term and placed her on a $500 nine-month good behaviour bond.
The offences involved submitting to the Australian Electoral Commission forms that gave false addresses in the Auburn area with the siblings exchanging numerous incriminating text messages on July 30, 2012, shortly before the close of the electoral roll.
Salim Mehajer’s lawyer indicated the team would lodge a sentence appeal later today and apply for bail, pending it being heard at a later date.
She earlier asked the magistrate to consider the “extra-curial” punishment her client had received due to the massive negative publicity surrounding the case.
But Liam Cavell, for the commonwealth DPP, referred to Mehajer’s 2015 wedding and a subsequent interview when he spoke of his ambition to be prime minister.
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“Mr Mehajer has made a deliberate and concerted attempt to court media attention quite separately from this offending,” he said.
Mehajer also had been involved in other legal matters, which no doubt negatively influenced media attention he had received.
“It cannot be said that simply because of this offending, which only reached the court in 2016, that he has received all the negative publicity he has,” Mr Cavell said.