By Sally Rawsthorne
Fresh from prison, Auburn’s disgraced former deputy mayor Salim Mehajer has been pursued by media through Parramatta Westfield before making his first post-release stop at the local branch of Service NSW, followed by a visit to the dentist.
The Sydney businessman – and groom in Sydney’s grandest wedding, jailbird and now parolee – began a new chapter of his remarkable riches to rags tale on Friday as he strode out of the John Morony Correctional Complex near Windsor about 9.30am.
Wearing a navy suit, tie and a dark pair of sunglasses, and clutching a plastic bag, a grinning Mehajer shook hands enthusiastically with the driver of a waiting black Mercedes-Benz believed to have been hired by Mehajer for the occasion.
Inside the car, reflective screens stopped waiting media from getting a shot of the former prisoner.
The luxury sedan, boasting personalised plates, whisked him away from waiting media to the unlikely location of Westfield Parramatta. Journalists, cameramen and photographers pursued him to the shopping centre.
Inside the complex, reporters followed Mehajer down escalators and past shops to his unlikely first stop, the Service NSW branch.
A smiling Salim Mehajer left jail on Friday.Credit: Nine News
Leaving, he was again rushed into the waiting black Mercedes-Benz and did not answer questions from the press.
In the early afternoon, he was photographed leaving a Hornsby dentist clinic. The 39-year-old was then driven in his hire car back to Parramatta, where he entered a large apartment complex and remained for the rest of the afternoon.
The former politician was found guilty in 2023 during separate trials for a wide range of crimes between 2018 and 2020.
He was sentenced to a period of seven years and nine months’ jail for several offences, including domestic violence offences against his former partner and forging his lawyer’s signature. His non-parole period of three years and nine months expired on Friday.
Mehajer, on various occasions, gave his former partner a dead arm, suffocated her until she fainted and threatened to kill her mother.
Mehajer’s former partner and domestic violence victim, who cannot be named, condemned his release.
“We are left to rebuild our lives while they are handed back theirs,” she said.
“Despite the stats and evidence of reoffending, parole decisions are often made behind closed doors, with minimal transparency and inadequate weight given to victim impact statements, expert warnings, and patterns of abusive behaviour.”
Mehajer also visited a dentist in Hornsby.Credit: Nine News
Mehajer’s strict parole conditions include “adapting to a normal lawful community life”, no contact with his victim, no contact with bikies and a ban on visiting the Central Coast local government area.
The commissioner of corrective services had opposed Mehajer’s release, citing a risk of reoffending, a lack of change in attitude and an “absence of insight”.
A report about Mehajer’s post-incarceration prospects also reveals concern that “the environment into which [he] will be released will ingratiate him further among attitudes that do not challenge offending”.
Reflective screens in the black Mercedes-Benz that whisked Mehajer away from the prison complex.Credit: Nick Moir
It also noted he had the “unwavering” support of his family, some of whom have had their own fraud convictions and are associated with a known Sydney crime family.
The State Parole Authority assessed Mehajer’s risk of reoffending as “medium” in granting him parole.
Mehajer broke down in court in October last year after claiming he was not given a fair trial while defending himself against domestic violence allegations.
He told the court at the time that he had recently been returned to solitary confinement for his own protection.
Prosecutors then said Mehajer had a history of lodging applications and appeals, which had the effect of delaying his proceedings.
The lavish wedding of Salim Mehajer shut down a Lidcombe street.Credit: Nine News
Mehajer’s appeal against his domestic violence convictions is listed for hearing in the Court of Criminal Appeal on August 4.
He separately pleaded guilty last year to separate offences of staging a car crash to avoid a 2017 court hearing and falsely nominating other people as the driver for multiple traffic infringements, but his jail time was not extended any further.
Mehajer rose to notoriety around the time of his wedding, which illegally shut down a street, reportedly cost $1 million and involved a helicopter and a fighter jet fly-by.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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