Tony Mokbel convinced Lawyer X helped police catch him in Greece
Tony Mokbel claims Lawyer X alerted police to his movements when he was on the run in Greece, adding an unexpected twist to the widely-celebrated account of how police captured him in 2007. Here’s why he’s convinced she tipped them off.
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Tony Mokbel is convinced that Lawyer X tipped off police about his movements when he was on the run in Greece, helping authorities to catch him.
His belief will be a key line of inquiry at the Lawyer X royal commission for his legal team, including two QCs who sat in on the opening day on Friday.
The underworld kingpin’s claim adds a shock twist to the widely-celebrated account of how Greek police captured him in Athens in June 2007 after a 15-month global manhunt.
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Mokbel, recovering in hospital after a vicious jail assault this week, has told his representatives that Lawyer X was in contact with associates of his who knew of his whereabouts in Greece.
He believes Lawyer X passed on details of his location, gleaned from them, to her police handlers.
A source close to Mokbel said: “He is almost certain of this. People she was in contact with knew where he was. She would have learned of his whereabouts through his intermediaries.”
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There was no direct phone contact between Lawyer X and Mokbel until after his Athens arrest. The Herald Sun can further reveal:
MOKBEL took legal advice from her during his extradition fight after his capture, and she told police of his plans;
LAWYER X fed police details of Mokbel’s legal strategies during his cocaine importation trial in 2006, shortly before he fled overseas.
THE Supreme Court has found there could be “sufficient foundation” for Mokbel to challenge convictions following his extradition, because the process might have been compromised due to her informing;
UP to 15 key syndicate members of a huge ecstasy importation scam, dubbed the Tomato Tins case, want to be heard at the royal commission.
The Herald Sun revealed in March 2014 that Lawyer X was informing on clients. Last December, after the breadth of the scandal could finally be published, we exclusively reported that Mokbel was demanding an early release from Barwon Prison.
The underworld boss is recovering from a brain bleed caused during an alleged attempt on his life at the prison on Monday. There are fears he may be left with some brain damage.
Last month, Mokbel wrote an exhaustive claim to the Office of Public Prosecutions in which he called himself a victim of a “corrupt prosecution” and listed 500 questions for Lawyer X to be asked at the royal commission about the defence barrister’s “unlawful conduct”.
Lawyer X represented Mokbel from 2002 until 2012.
Oddly, he also claims Lawyer X warned him in March 2006 that murder charges relating to the deaths of Michael Marshall and Lewis Moran loomed, and told him to abscond.
Police have credited Mokbel’s capture to an informer known as “Human Source 3030”, who received a reward close to $1 million.
A drug dealer and Mokbel associate, 3030 provided police with phone numbers and downloaded computer files that revealed not only where Mokbel had fled, but also critical financial details about the Mokbel drug empire.
It is not known if 3030 knew Lawyer X, whose informer number was 3838.
But Mokbel’s claim that Lawyer X also gave police information on his whereabouts in Greece adds another layer to the intrigue.
A Supreme Court ruling on whether Lawyer X’s clients should be notified of her duplicity reveals that she and Mokbel regularly spoke after he had been arrested wearing a wig in a Athens restaurant in June 2007.
“EF (Lawyer X) provided Victoria Police with information about Mokbel’s legal strategy to resist extradition in the second half of 2007,” the Supreme Court ruling states.
“She accepted that, at some points, Mokbel would have reasonably expected that he was contacting her as his lawyer,” it also says.
“EF (Lawyer X), when speaking to her handlers, said of Mokbel: ‘Well, one of the many ironies of all this is I have so many conflicts with the bloke but what does he know? He doesn’t know about any of them. They’ll stay hidden’.”
While he was in jail in Greece, discussing a possible plea, Lawyer X told him in a call: “Hang up, ring me next week and let me speak to Simon Overland for you,” the ruling details. But she did not subsequently contact Overland, then Victoria Police’s deputy commissioner, on Mokbel’s behalf, it says.
She described another call with Mokbel around the time to police as “more ravings and craziness”.
The court ruling, released last December, details how Lawyer X was appearing as junior counsel for Mokbel in connection with the cocaine trial before he fled to Greece.
“EF (Lawyer X) agreed that on 16 September 2005, she spoke to Victoria Police about how they could best remove Mokbel from being able to move freely around Melbourne and provided them with suggestions,” the ruling reveals.
It further states that in March 2006: “EF (Lawyer X) told Victoria Police of a general discussion with Mokbel in which he said that he had a possible chance of acquittal due to a clever no-case submission.
“During his trial in 2006, EF passed on to Victoria Police Mokbel’s view of the jury and that he did not want it discharged.”
She also tipped off police to two Mokbel drug labs in late 2005 and early 2006.
Mokbel was among 22 convicted criminals — many from his cartel — who received letters two months ago advising them that their cases may have been tainted due to their involvement with Lawyer X.
Mokbel had already launched appeal proceedings.