A woman who allegedly withdrew claims her parents had kidnapped and beaten her after she rejected an arranged marriage has been charged with making a false statement.
Rhonda Al-Fadhli’s allegations against her parents led to them being charged with offences which could have seen them serve up to 25 years in jail if convicted.
Enam Hmeed and her husband Mohamed Al-Fadhli were arrested in April after police found their daughter Rhonda in their convenience store with a metal chain padlocked around her neck.
They were accused of assaulting their daughter in Dubbo in western NSW after finding out she was still in contact with her boyfriend Mohamad Ebady, who had asked for their permission to marry her.
Those charges were dropped earlier this month, with Ms Hmeed and Mr Al-Fadhli walking free from court.
Mr Ebady, who was convicted of importing a border-controlled drug two years ago, is now the subject of an interim apprehended violence order taken out by police to protect Rhonda.
The proposal to Rhonda was refused by her parents because Mr Al-Fadhli allegedly wanted 21-year-old Rhonda to marry his brother’s son – her first cousin – in an arranged marriage.
Ms Hmeed, 46, and Mr Al-Fadhli, 53, were each charged with one count of kidnapping and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
A woman who allegedly withdrew claims her parents had kidnapped and beaten her after she rejected an arranged marriage has been charged with making a false statement. The woman’s mother Enam Hmeed is pictured
Enam Hmeed and her husband Mohamed Al-Fadhli were arrested in April after police found their daughter Rhonda in their convenience store (pictured) with a metal chain padlocked around her neck
Police had alleged Ms Hmeed grabbed her daughter by the hair and hit her head against a concrete wall multiple times after discovering Rhonda on the phone with her boyfriend.
Mr Al-Fadhli allegedly travelled almost 400km from Sydney to Dubbo to the family’s shop, Alibaba Convenience, after hearing from his wife about the secret phone call.
Ms Hmeed was also accused of biting her daughter and attacking her with a garden hose.
The father was accused of locking a silver chain around his daughter’s neck before repeatedly attacking her with the hose.
Police alleged Rhonda had been able to contact police and Mr Ebady with a hidden phone and alert them to her condition on two separate occasions on April 20.
Mr Al-Fadhi was accused of having said: ‘This girl doesn’t ever learn, I hit her once and she still doesn’t understand, I’m going to keep going until she understands.’
It was revealed in July that Rhonda had allegedly backtracked on the claims she made against her parents and told police she invented the story as part of an ‘evil’ revenge plot.
‘I just wanted police to take my parents away because they didn’t accept me or Mohamad, so I wanted to do something evil to get them locked up,’ Rhonda allegedly said.
Police had alleged Ms Hmeed grabbed her daughter by the hair and hit her head against a concrete wall multiple times after discovering Rhonda on the phone with her boyfriend. Stock image
That comment was made in a retraction to police which was tendered during her mother’s bail application in the NSW Supreme Court.
In her second police statement, Rhonda allegedly said she had threatened to kill herself and pulled out her own hair after her mother found her talking on the phone with Mr Ebady.
She allegedly locked herself in her bedroom and told police she had bitten her own arms and slammed her face into a wall, according to The Daily Telegraph.
‘I wrapped [the] hose around my hand and constantly hit my body… on my arms, my legs, my thighs, my back,’ Rhonda wrote in her second statement.
‘I chained myself with the chain and locked it so that it was really tight.
‘I started screaming hysterically.’
Rhonda denied she had been pressured to retract her original claims – a suggestion raised by the Crown during her mother’s successful bail application.
The prosecution also raised concerns Mr Al-Fadhi had attempted to coerce his daughter into withdrawing her complaint based on remarks he made in phone calls to a family member from prison.
Ms Hmeed (pictured) and Mr Al-Fadhli were each charged with one count of kidnapping and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. They were both cleared of all charges
All charges against Rhonda’s parents were withdrawn by a police prosecutor at Dubbo Local Court on October 9.
Daily Mail can now reveal Rhonda faced Bankstown Local Court on May 15 charged with one count of knowingly making a false or misleading statement.
She will appear in the same court in January next year for a hearing set down for two hours.
Mr Ebady was sentenced in November 2023 to an 18-month intensive correction order after pleading guilty to intentionally importing a prohibited good and two counts of importing a border-controlled drug.
He was listed before Waverley Local Court in September after police took out an interim apprehended violence order to protect Rhonda from the 23-year-old.