Gangland figure Tony Mokbel freedom bid back in court

Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel’s fight for freedom could kick off within months.

Jailed drug kingpin Tony Mokbel could have his bid for freedom heard by the Court of Appeal as early as July.

Mokbel’s top legal team – which includes Sydney silk Bret Walker, SC who represented Cardinal George Pell in the High Court last year – have served a 52 page “statement of facts” on the state’s top prosecutor as the underworld bigwig continues his fight to be released from prison.

The Court of Appeal on Friday heard the ball was now in the Director of Public Prosecution’s court to work through the lengthy document and raise any disputes.

Ruth Shann, for Mokbel, told the court she hoped the DPP “will come to accept without the need for further litigation, many, if not all of those matters”.

“That will provide us with a very good idea of how quickly this could turn around into a hearing,” Ms Shann said.

Tony Mokbel. Picture: AAP Image/Julian Smith

Nicola Gobbo.

Chief Crown prosecutor Brendan Kissane QC said he expected to have their response ready in the coming weeks, but said he did not share Ms Shann’s “optimism” on the level of agreement of facts.

“We’re working through it, but having seen the size of the task, it seems to us it’s going to take us to mid March,” Mr Kissane said.

“I’m not sure there’s going to be as much agreement as Ms Shann hopes for in our response,” Mr Kissane said.

“I note her degree of optimism but I’m not sure that’s as realistic as the situation really is,” he said.

Mr Kissane said he was “hopeful” to have the matter ready for hearing by the third term of the court’s sitting calendar, which runs from late July to early September.

Mokbel, 55, is appealing his jail terms on the grounds his disgraced barrister Nicola Gobbo, aka Lawyer X, was also a police informer.

Mokbel was given a boost in his bid to walk free from prison after a cocaine ­trafficking conviction was quashed in a surprise development in December.

The overturned 2006 conviction related to the importation of almost 2kg of ­cocaine from Mexico.

Mokbel is serving a minimum of 22 years, and his earliest ­release date is still 2033.

The matter will return to court on March 26 for mention.

LAWYER X CRIMINALS’ APPEAL HEARINGS HIT COURTS

Drug baron Rob Karam could also have his Lawyer X appeal heard by the middle of this year as the court flags his case as a “top priority” for its upcoming calendar.

The convicted drug trafficker is serving a 19 year jail sentence for his role in the world’s then-largest ecstasy haul in 2007 in which 15 million pills were shipped to Australia hidden in tomato tins from Italy.

Karam was among four underworld figures to have his matters called before the Court of Appeal on Thursday as the justice system works to have all appeals sparked by the unprecedented legal scandal dealt with by early next year.

Zlate Cvetanovski. Picture: Mark Stewart

Rob Karam.

Eight appeals, including that of Tony Mokbel, are currently on foot after the Herald Sun revealed in 2015 snitching barrister Nicola Gobbo was working as a secret police informer while representing some of Melbourne’s most notorious criminals.

Justice Chris Maxwell said the purpose of these short hearings was to “prompt people to focus on what still needs to be done”.

Justice Maxwell said judges and registrars would be on stand by to deal with any case management “blockages”.

The court heard Karam’s case was the oldest – having been the first to challenge his conviction on the Lawyer X principle – and therefore would be given “top priority” for listing.

Dr Theo Alexander, for Karam, said if factual disputes between the parties were only minor or “non-existent” then the appeal should be ready for hearing before the end of June.

It is expected to be heard over one or two days.

The court heard Mokbel money man Zlate Cvetanovksi’s appeal on a charge of financial deception would not be dealt with “as urgently” as the others, given he was released from prison after a decade and had his drug trafficking charges quashed in October.

And a directions hearing for Griffith mafia boss Pasquale Barbaro, who is serving 30 years, will follow on Friday afternoon.

The legal scandal saw gangland figure Faruk Orman released from jail after his murder conviction was overturned in 2019.