Salim Mehajer case: Time delay kills off charges against six

THE case against six people accused alongside Salim ­Mehajer of attempting to rig local council elections has fallen apart after authorities waited too long to press charges.

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THE case against six people accused alongside Salim ­Mehajer of attempting to rig local council elections has fallen apart after authorities waited too long to press charges.

The six, who include Mehajer’s friends and family members, were charged in December with one count each of allegedly forging documents in a plot to have Mehajer elected to Auburn Council in 2012.

The law requires police to lay charges within six months of the ­offence being committed.

Salim Mehajer’s brother-in-law Jamal Elkheir was among six charged in December.

Since the allegations relate to the 2012 election and the charges were not laid until 2015, prosecutors have been forced to drop all six cases.

They include Mehajer’s school friend Shi Lao, his brother-in-law Jamal Elkheir, along with Ahmad Trad, Fatima Kandil and Abhinav and Arjun Mehta. All were accused of falsifying their candidate information sheets to claim they lived at Auburn addresses.

Mehajer and his sister Fatima are still facing more than 70 charges each. Both have indicated they will plead not guilty.

At least three of the others will ask Magistrate Jennifer Atkinson to order taxpayers to pay their legal costs for the case at The Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday.

The Australian Federal Police, who led the investigation into ­Mehajer, did not ­respond to questions, including why the charges were not laid until 2015.

Instead, an AFP spokesperson said the decision to withdraw the charges was made by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and that “further questions relating to this matter should be directed to the CDPP”.

Mr Mehajer’s friend Shi Lao and girlfriend Julia leave Downing Centre Local Court.

A CDPP spokesperson did not respond to emailed questions. A possible reason for the delay could be the lengthy ­nature of the investigation.

When contacted, Mr Lao’s lawyer Maggie Sten confirmed she would be seeking costs for her client when the matter ­returns to court. Lawyer John Sutton, who acts for Abhinav and Arjun Mehta, also said his clients  would  also  be seeking costs.  On March 29, the court was told that Ms Sten wrote to the CDPP asking for the charge to be withdrawn against Lao ­because the statute of limitations had expired.

The CDPP then dropped the charge and it set off a chain reaction where the charges were also withdrawn against the others. Mehajer and his sister are facing 76 indictable offences relating to alleged electoral fraud, which don’t carry the same time restrictions and carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.