Legal Aid axed for Man Monis's girlfriend over hate mail campaign conviction

The ex-partner of gunman Man Haron Monis has had her legal aid terminated in her bid to overturn a previous conviction.

Amirah Droudis is seeking to appeal her 2013 conviction for helping Man Haron Monis send threatening and harassing letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers.

During a brief mention of the matter this morning, the Court of Criminal Appeal was told that Droudis's grant for Legal Aid had been terminated.

Droudis, who is in custody on a murder charge, has been sent a notice of abandonment, the legal aid lawyer said.

He also sought leave to withdraw from Monis's bid to overturn his conviction for sending the letters due to his death.

The letters, dubbed by one High Court judge as "sadistic, wantonly cruel and deeply wounding", were sent to the families of seven soldiers killed in Afghanistan and a trade official killed in a bombing in Indonesia, between 2007 and 2009.

Monis, a self-styled Muslim cleric pleaded guilty to 12 counts of using a postal service to cause offence in 2013, while Droudis pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting him.

Their pleas marked the end of legal proceedings that lasted four years, including an unsuccessful High Court challenge to the charges.

As well as posting the letters - some of which described the soldiers as murderers - Monis published them on his website under headings such as: "Why should we call pig a hero?"

On one occasion, Droudis approached the pregnant widow of one of the men at his funeral and tried to give her letters.

Just three days before Monis's death in December his bid to appeal the matter to the High Court was again dismissed.