Fresh details of what prison officials allegedly knew about attack coming on Tony Mokbel

Prison officials have been blamed for a nearly fatal stabbing attack on drug kingpin Tony Mokbel, that left him with an acquired brain injury.

Prison officials have been blamed for a near fatal attack on drug kingpin Tony Mokbel amid fresh allegations they ignored warnings the high profile inmate was at risk.

The prison’s mail office received two anonymous letters warning of an “incident involving a prisoner” in Mokbel’s unit before he was viciously attacked in the exercise yard on February 11, 2019.

Fresh details of what the prison allegedly knew have been revealed in Supreme Court documents as Mokbel sues the state over the stabbing that has left him with an acquired brain injury.

Associate judge Ian Irving on Friday dismissed the Victorian Government’s bid to strike out Mokbel’s updated statement of claim that outlined its negligence.

Drug lord Tony Mokbel when he was discharged from hospital. Picture: Twitter

Mokbel says he continues to be held in “harmful conditions” in a high security unit after he was stabbed up to seven times with a shiv in an attack he claims was “foreseeable and ought to have been prevented.”

According to court documents, Barwon was put into lockdown on February 10 when a Herald Sun article detailed how Mokbel had intervened in a standover scheme by other inmates against a young prisoner.

During the lockdown, Mokbel told the prison operations manager “he did not have concerns about his safety”.

But he says authorities failed to take reasonable steps to prevent harm to him from the prisoners identified in the article.

Tony Mokbel in 2011. Picture AAP.

Documents also reveal that before the attack, an anonymous note was sent to the prison’s mail office foreshadowing an incident in Mokbel’s unit.

The note was assessed by the Prison Intelligence Unitand security at the prison was uplifted.

A second note then led officers to “believe a prisoner other than (Mokbel) was at risk”.

The drug lord claims he continues to be held “unlawfully” in High Security Unit conditions, where his rights to be in open air for at least an hour a day were being contravened.

Mokbel is seeking damages for negligence over the attack, and declaratory and injunctive relief for the “harm he continues to suffer” from the conditions of his incarceration.