Notorious gangland figure Tony Mokbel wins bail ahead of Lawyer X appeal
Tony Mokbel has checked in at Heidelberg Police Station hours after being granted bail almost 18 years on from his notorious arrest as a fugitive in Greece.
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Tony Mokbel has made his first check-in at a police station after being freed on bail.
The crime boss made his first visit to Heidelberg Police Station, as per his bail conditions, just before 9.40am.
He was seen driving into the visitors’ car park with a woman by his side before he walked briskly towards the front entrance, where he refused to answer questions from waiting reporters.
The 59-year-old was wearing a black cap, black shirt and pants and white sneakers.
Mokbel spent a few minutes checking in with police at the front desk before being driven away in a Volkswagen Golf.
He also later was spotted wandering around Northland Shopping Centre with an unknown woman.
A man arrived at the home of Mokbel’s sister to set up a new security camera in the afternoon.
Earlier, on Saturday morning, Mokbel stepped out for a walk with family, hours after being released on bail.
Mokbel and four others left his sister’s house — where he will remain while on bail — about 7.30am, heading to a nearby reserve to take in the morning air.
The parkland was already full of morning dog walkers as Mokbel and his crew made their way to the park, which is less than a minute’s walk from the Viewbank home.
They returned after a nearly hour-long walk, when Mokbel finally opened up to waiting reporters saying he couldn’t talk to media as his hands were tied.
“You know I have proceedings on foot, and I can’t talk to anyone, so thank you,” he said.
“That’s the instruction from all my lawyers.”
Mokbel takes first steps of freedom
It comes a day after Mokbel took his first steps of freedom in 18 years as he walked down the steps of Victoria’s Court of Appeal.
Police and protective services officers cleared a path for the drug kingpin to make his way to a Mercedes which was waiting to pick him up just after 1.30pm.
Supporters cheered and clapped as he made his way through the huge media pack.
Mokbel was granted bail by the Court of Appeal on Friday — almost 18 years and 6514 days after he last tasted freedom.
He will be required to wear a GPS monitoring device around his ankle so police know his whereabouts at all times, and physically report to Heidelberg Police Station daily.
The landmark ruling comes as the 59-year-old fights to have his drug trafficking convictions quashed over the Lawyer X scandal.
Sporting a black suit and a striped tie, Mokbel was brought into the court dock about 9.50am,
flanked by four specialist guards who are responsible for high-security escorts.
He patted one of his lawyers on the back as he walked past the bar table and smiled at his sister, Gawy Saad, seated in front of him.
The courtroom was at capacity with lawyers, reporters and Mokbel supporters.
In a unanimous decision, Court of Appeal president Karin Emerton and justices Jane Dixon and Robert Osborn found exceptional circumstances applied, and granted Mokbel bail on the strict conditions.
Justice Emerton said the case was “very unusual” but Mokbel had established that his circumstances were “truly exceptional”.
She said the decision had to be understood in the context of damning findings by Justice Elizabeth Fullerton in December.
Justice Fullerton found Victoria Police took part in a “joint criminal enterprise” when they enlisted Nicola Gobbo, known as Lawyer X, to bring down her client, Mokbel.
“As Justice Fullerton found, in the absence of disclosure of Nicola Gobbo’s conduct ... Mr Mokbel was in no position to properly assess whether it was in his best interests to agree to the global plea deal which he entered into,” Justice Emerton said on Friday.
“He was deliberately misled and deceived as to the strength and nature of the prosecution cases.”
The judge said Mokbel had a “very strong” case to quash his convictions as a result of the concealment and nondisclosure of Gobbo’s conduct.
More than 30 bail conditions including a curfew, the wearing of an electronic monitoring device and daily reporting to Heidelberg police station were imposed on Mokbel.
Justice Emerton asked Mokbel if he understood the bail conditions.
“I do your Honour,” he said.
Asked if he would abide by them, Mokbel stood and said: “I swear, yes your Honour.”
Justice Emerton said the most concerning aspect of Mokbel’s application was when he absconded to Greece in 2006, while he was on bail during his drug trafficking trial.
“Today’s circumstances are different,” she said, noting he now had an incentive to stay in the jurisdiction and see his appeal through.
She said he had spent 18 years in custody — much of it in harsh conditions — and also had an acquired brain injury.
Mokbel’s sister, Gawy Saad, gave an undertaking to the court that she would report her brother to police if he breached his bail conditions.
After the court was adjourned, Mokbel kissed his sister on the cheek and waved to his supporters before being led out by the specialist officers.
Ms Saad was visibly relieved when she heard her brother will be released on bail.
Asked outside court if she was pleased, Ms Saad said, “absolutely, he deserves to come out now”.
In the first part of his bail hearing on Tuesday, his barrister Julie Condon KC argued Mokbel had suffered a substantial miscarriage of justice when he pleaded guilty to the drug trafficking offences without knowing his then-lawyer Nicola Gobbo was a police snitch.
Ms Condon acknowledged releasing a prisoner in the middle of serving a 26-year jail term was “very rare” and “highly unusual”, but that Mokbel had reasonable prospects of winning his appeal and therefore was at risk of spending more time behind bars than warranted.
The strength of his appeal and the significant delays it had faced were among seven factors she relied on to say exceptional circumstances had been met for him to be bailed.
She also pointed to the damning findings made by NSW judge Elizabeth Fullerton in December that Victoria Police’s use of Gobbo to bring Mokbel down was part of a “joint criminal enterprise”.
Other factors, she said, included Mokbel’s poor health after he sustained a brain injury in a prison attack in February 2019 and the tough conditions he faced while behind bars.
It was proposed he would live with his sister, Ms Saad, and her husband, Youssef, at their Viewbank home and abide by an 11pm to 6am curfew.
He would also be prohibited from leaving Victoria or attending international points of departure.
Crown Prosecutor David Glynn opposed Mokbel’s release, pointing to the career criminal’s notorious escape to Greece during the final days of his cocaine trafficking trial in March 2006.
The jury was forced to return its guilty verdict in Mokbel’s absence, with a massive international manhunt resulting in his arrest at an Athens restaurant, wearing an infamous ill-fitted wig, in June 2007.
To help secure her brother’s release, Ms Saad initially offered a $500,000 surety, but when questioned by the judges that it may be too little, she upped it to $1m.
She declared she knew she was at risk of losing it or going to jail like Mokbel’s sister-in-law Renate, who posted $1m bail surety during the 2006 trial.
Renate Mokbel was jailed for two years when police could not track her brother-in-law down and she couldn’t pay the money.
“He’s been punished for it — he’s done his time,” Ms Saad told the court this week.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t do it to anyone else.”
Ms Condon also reiterated Mokbel had no intention of fleeing as he had strong family ties to the community, including a long-term partner, and wanted to see out his Lawyer X appeal.
“He has a clear incentive to remain in this jurisdiction and see out the end of the (Lawyer X appeal) process that quite unimaginably … began almost 10 years ago,” Ms Condon said.
One of his convictions has already been quashed due to police using Gobbo to inform on him.
He is appealing against his other convictions, known as Quills, Orbital and Magnum.
The appeal hearing is expected to be heard later this year.
On Friday afternoon after Mr Mokbel’s release a Victorian government spokesperson said: “Decisions to grant bail are made independently of government”.
“It would be inappropriate to comment any further on this individual matter that is still before the court.
“We acted so the events that led to the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants will never happen again.”
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