Disgraced former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer has been secretly jailed for brutally attacking his ex-girlfriend – as she breaks her silence over her horrendous ordeal.
Mehajer, 38, was sentenced to seven years and nine months in prison at the District Court for a raft of offences last May – including domestic violence and fraudulent use of documents.
A jury had found the former politician and property developer guilty of suffocating, punching and threatening to kill his ex-partner during ‘four bouts’ of anger during the ‘abusive’ relationship.
However, the lengthy jail term could not be reported until this week when a court lifted a non-publication order after Mehajer pleaded guilty to a series of separate offences.
Those crimes – which include staging a car crash in 2017 to avoid a court hearing and falsely nominating other people as the driver for multiple traffic infringements – are due for sentencing next month.
After the gag order was lifted on Monday, Mehajer’s ex-girlfriend – who cannot be named for legal reasons – issued a statement welcoming the outcome.
Salim Mehajer (pictured) was secretly jailed for seven years and nine months in May
‘For those of you who supported me through this ordeal, the NPO was lifted today,’ she wrote online.
‘I am going to make a very beautiful life for myself, no matter what it takes.’
Mehajer rose to infamy in 2015 after his lavish wedding – featuring a fighter jet, four helicopters, a fleet of sports cars and a seaplane – shut down streets in Sydney‘s west, outraging his neighbours.
He was subsequently fined for closing the street and a petition was launched calling for Mehajer to be sacked from the council.
In the years following his high-profile nuptials, Mehajer’s life dramatically imploded as his business dealings began to unravel and legal issues started to mount.
In June 2018, he was sentenced to 21 months in prison over 77 cases of electoral fraud relating to the 2012 local NSW Government election.
He served 11 months of that term, and shortly after his release, was back before the courts for falsely naming others as being behind the wheel of his luxury cars when he was caught speeding between 2012 and 2014.
Mehajer is pictured arriving at Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court for a matter in August 2020
Mehajer’s high-profile wedding (pictured) caused an uproar in his neighbourhood, sparking a petition for him to be sacked
In the domestic violence trial last year, the court heard Mehajer punched his ex-girlfriend in the head 10 times while they were in a car heading to a restaurant after a fight erupted about necklaces.
In another incident, he flew into a jealous rage and squeezed her hand so hard while she was holding her phone that its screen broke and glass fragments went into her thumb.
In the two other violent episodes he pinned her to the wall and threatened to ‘kill her family members in front of her before killing her’, and concerned her in a room before covering her nose and mouth with his hand until she blacked out.
The seven-year prison term – which relates to a total of 15 charges – also includes fraud convictions after Mehajer was found guilty by a jury in June last year of forging his sister and former lawyer’s signatures to obtain a financial advantage.
Mehajer’s sentence was backdated to 2022 and includes a non-parole period of three years and six months.
His maximum jail sentence expires on October 18, 2029, but he will be eligible for early release from July 18, 2025.