By Erin Pearson and Chris Vedelago
Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel has walked from custody for the first time in nearly two decades, spending his first hours of freedom pursued along a freeway in his car and reuniting with family, as well as visiting his mother’s grave.
Three Court of Appeal judges granted him bail on Friday subject to about 30 strict conditions including that he not use a smartphone, not use encrypted apps, wear a GPS ankle bracelet, be subjected to a curfew and report daily to police.
Tony Mokbel walks free from court for the first time in nearly 18 years on Friday.Credit: Daniel Pockett
The underworld figure made a bid for bail earlier this week after being locked up for nearly 18 years – overseas and then in Victoria – for drug trafficking, a prosecution that his legal team argues has been hopelessly corrupted by the Lawyer X scandal.
And in granting his bail, Justice Karin Emerton gave Mokbel, 59, more good news, saying his appeal case was strong.
“He has a very strong case that his convictions … should be quashed,” she said.
Emerton said the most concerning aspect when examining Mokbel’s bail application was his 2006 bail breach, when he absconded and fled to Greece.
Mokbel leaves court on Friday.Credit: Marta Pascual Juanola
Today’s circumstances are different, she said, as Mokbel is seeing out a criminal process that began almost 20 years ago.
“He’s spent much of his time in harsh conditions [in prison],” she said. “That’s likely to have a deterrent effect.”
Emerton also said medical reports showed Mokbel was no longer the man he was, due to a serious assault on him while in jail in 2019.
“You undertake to abide by those conditions?” Emerton asked Mokbel on Friday morning.
“I swear, yes, your honour,” Mokbel replied.
He turned his head towards supporters after the decision, who gathered in the court lobby hugging and smiling.
After 3½ hours organising paperwork and having his ankle bracelet attached, Mokbel walked from court about 1.30pm, dressed in a suit and tie, smiling broadly and nodding to the assembled media pack.
He was ushered into a car that drove in a loop around Melbourne’s freeways with media in chase before arriving at his sister’s home in the north-eastern suburb of Viewbank. He later left the house to visit his mother’s grave at Fawkner Memorial Park, flanked by his brothers Horty and Kabalan, the Herald Sun reported.
Gawy Saad had earlier agreed to put up a $1 million surety – $100,000 from a bank cheque and the rest in equity from a home in Yallambie – to help secure her brother’s release.
Saad acknowledged Mokbel’s sister-in-law Renate Mokbel had put up a surety for the same amount years ago only for Tony Mokbel to flee Australia for Greece while on bail.
But she told the court her brother had been punished enough for his crimes and that she was sure he would not flee again.
“Look, he’s been punished for it and he’s done his time. I’m sure he wouldn’t do it [flee] to anyone else or me. That’s my strong belief,” she testified.
Tony Mokbel arrives at the Victorian Court of Appeal on Friday morning.Credit: Joe Armao
The court heard she had assets worth more than $2.5 million tied up in properties in Yallambie and Viewbank, including Mokbel’s bail address – a four-bedroom, two-ensuite property his younger sister and her husband, Youssef Saad, live in.
The prosecution told the court that Mokbel’s flight risk was not low, given that the last time the mastermind of drug-trafficking operation the Company was free he fled Australia hidden inside a 17-metre yacht. He is banned now from going within two kilometres of airports.
Private bail company Allied Universal, based in New Zealand, will monitor Mokbel’s movements via his ankle bracelet around the clock, charging more than $25,000 a year for the service, which Mokbel is funding.
Mokbel’s barrister, Julie Condon, KC, relied on nine factors in seeking bail for Mokbel, including his poor health, the strength of his appeal case and his circumstances in custody.
Condon revealed Mokbel was in a long-term relationship and had family who lived locally, giving him strong ties to the community.
He was handed a 30-year prison sentence, with a non-parole period of 22 years, in 2012 after pleading guilty to masterminding an elaborate drug syndicate.
Mokbel has applied to have his entire conviction quashed because of the Lawyer X scandal, after the discovery that his barrister, Nicola Gobbo, was also working as a double agent for police. That hearing is set to take place before the end of the year.
He is due back in court in May.
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