Zlate Cvetanovski’s bid for freedom in Lawyer X crisis denied
A convicted member of Tony Mokbel’s drug “cartel’’ has failed in his first bid for freedom in the Lawyer X crisis.
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A convicted member of Tony Mokbel’s drug “cartel’’ has failed in his first bid for freedom in the Lawyer X crisis.
Zlate “Steve’’ Cvetanovski, 52, who is nearing the end of his jail term for drug trafficking and financial offences has today asked two Appeal Court justices to give him bail.
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But his application was rejected after the Court of Appeal president Christopher Maxwell and Mark Weinberg ruled they had not been provided enough information to determine if Gobbo’s informing made his conviction unsafe.
Cvetanovski — whose earliest parole period begins in August 2020 — argues he was wrongly convicted after being set up by barrister and registered police informer 3838, Nicola Gobbo, also known as Lawyer X.
Justice Maxwell said the justice system was in “uncharted waters” but he said without reviewing thousands of pages of police documents they could not test Mr Cvetanovski’s claim.
The court heard tens of thousands of documents needed reviewing, including police contact reports with Gobbo and her handlers and their diaries.
Victoria Police has a “team’’ of police and lawyers reviewing documents before disclosing them to Mr Cvetanovski’s legal team and the court.
There is a separate legal team reviewing document for the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants, who is due to report on Gobbo’s informing by June 1 this year.
The Herald Sun understands only one convicted client of Gobbo’s, Faruk Orman, has been given any documents, including redacted information reports.
Justice Maxwell who rejected the application, but not on its merits, said he would want Appeal proceedings to start as soon as practical and warned police there should be “no preventable delay in disclosure material.”
Gobbo has denied she acted for Cvetanovski in her own testimony to a court in 2017, a claim he says is wrong and that he paid her for legal advice.
In his affidavit Cvetanovski also asserts Gobbo conspired with another of her clients — who cannot be named for legal reasons — with whom she was close to and also turned into an informer.
“I know Lawyer X played a significant role in my arrest, charges and prosecution,’’ he states.
“Her involvement is the principal ground for which I have been granted leave (to appeal).
“Only now have I been able to see some light at the end of the tunnel after battling to expose the multitude of lies and deceit perpetrated Lawyer X, (named suppressed) Cvetanovski — who appeared via video-link — believes because it has taken him almost five years of legal fighting to get an appeal, and significant delays in disclosing information to him, he should not spend a day longer in prison.
He has spent more than a decade inside.
“I have waited long enough for Lawyer X’s role to be exposed,’’ he declares.
“I believe that I have been wrongfully convicted and to remain in prison until all investigations are complete (Royal Commission and my appeals) may involve completing a substantial period of my sentence.’’
His solicitor Michael Pena-Rees, principal of Armour Legal, said the police needed to set a date to provide documentation and stick to it.
“The liberty of Mr Cvetanovski is at risk and that is the priority,’’ he told the court.
Cvetanovski, along with Tony and Milad Mokbel, are among seven convicted people to be involved in the “Mokbel Cartel’’ who were informed upon by criminal barrister turned snitch Nicola Gobbo.
Several clients were convinced by Gobbo to become informers and therefore cannot be named, but may also seek to challenge their convictions and claim compensation.
All were among 20 people given letters by the Director of Public Prosecutions disclosing “the use by Victoria Police of a certain legal practitioner (to whom I will refer as 3838) as a registered human source — that is, a police informer.’’
It was also disclosed to Cvetanovski in his letter received on December 18 last year that “material’’ contained in the Kellam Report could also be interpreted to mean that certain persons who made statements against you, in the matters for which you were convicted, may have been legally represented by 3838 at or about the same time that 3838 was providing information to Victoria Police about those persons, and possible breach of legal professional privilege and/or in breach of a duty of confidentiality.’’