Janet Fife-Yeomans and Clementine Cuneo
The Daily Telegraph
June 24, 2011 12:00AM
A 23-year-old Justice of the Peace who thought he was witnessing Muslim woman Carnita Matthews' signature on a legal document said he never asked her to remove her full black niqab but had simply "assumed" it was her. Campbelltown property manager Awad Chennaoui's statement to police will be examined by the Attorney-General's Department as part of a review of the case.
Mr Chennaoui witnessed the signature on the statutory declaration which was at the centre of 47-year-old mother-of-seven Ms Matthews' prosecution - and successful appeal - for falsely claiming that highway patrol officer Senior Constable Paul Fogarty had tried to lift her veil, which is similar to a burqa.
Judge Clive Jeffreys overturned Ms Matthews' conviction and six-month jail sentence for deliberately making a false complaint because he said he could not be sure beyond a reasonable doubt that it was her signature on the statutory declaration handed to police.
The prosecution said the signature matched that on her driver's licence but the judge said there were a number of differences.
At the real estate agency where he works, Mr Chennaoui yesterday refused to discuss why he did not ask the woman signing the document for identification.
"I am not discussing this. I have nothing to say. I am at work, can you please never contact me again," he said.
In his police statement, which has been seen by The Daily Telegraph, he said that he first heard of Ms Matthews when he took a telephone call on June 8 last year from Wally Awad, a man he knew through Minto Mosque, who said someone needed a JP urgently.The previous day, Ms Matthews had been stopped for a random breath test and was booked by Sen-Constable Fogarty for not properly displaying the rear P-plate on her black Honda Odyssey.
Mr Chennaoui said in the statement that that night at the mosque he met Mr Awad, a man he knew as Hamdi and a woman wearing a full veil who he believed had made the statutory declaration.
"I couldn't see the lady's face except her eyes. I had never met the lady before," Mr Chennaoui said in the statement to police investigating claims made in the document that Sen-Constable Fogarty had been racist and ready to "rip" Ms Matthews' veil from her face.
"I assumed the lady was Carnita Matthews as her name appeared on the statutory declaration."
Attorney-General Greg Smith said yesterday he had received transcripts of the hearing and the judge's decision and had asked the acting Director of Public Prosecutions if there were any avenues for an appeal.
Ms Matthews could not be contacted yesterday.
Full Carnita Matthews Traffic Stop Police in Car Video
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