Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel may be free for the first time in almost two decades but his liberty comes with strict caveats – 31 of them to be exact.
The bail conditions handed down by Victoria’s Court of Appeal on Friday will control most aspects of his life – from forcing him to stay home at night to making him use a dumb phone – a basic handset used only for calls and messages – rather than a smartphone.
Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel walked from custody for the first time in almost 20 years on Friday.Credit: Daniel Pockett
If Mokbel breaches any of the conditions, his sister Gawy Saad could lose a $1 million surety, after his sister-in-law Renate Mokbel put up the same surety before he fled Australia for Greece while on bail years ago.
He was arrested at a cafe in Athens in June 2007 – the same month the now off-limits iPhone was released.
Mokbel has promised he won’t repeat his previous antics, telling Justice Karin Emerton on Friday when asked whether he would abide by his bail conditions: “I swear, yes, your honour.”
Mokbel’s bail conditions
- Report daily to Heidelberg police station in Melbourne’s north-east.
- Live at his Viewbank bail address – a four-bedroom, two-ensuite property his younger sister and her husband, Youssef Saad, live in.
- Let police know if he intends to change his bail address.
- Stay at home every night between the curfew hours of 8pm and 6am.
- Be ready to answer the door to police during his curfew hours.
- Pay out of his own pocket to be fitted with an electronic monitoring device, and for it to be up and running for a year.
- Pay for the electronic monitoring device to remain operational when it’s about to expire, and do so every six months.
- Make sure any technology needed to support the electronic monitoring device is installed and operational at his home before he leaves custody, or immediately afterwards.
- Comply with all instructions from the company that operates the electronic monitoring device.
- Not remove the electronic monitoring device, except to repair or replace it – with permission.
- Make sure the electronic monitoring device and all associated technology is up and running at all times.
- Immediately inform the court if he becomes aware the company that runs the electronic monitoring device has gone out of business.
- Not contact or attempt to contact any prosecution witnesses.
- Not contact or attempt to contact any witnesses who gave evidence before Justice Emerton, unless the witness gave evidence voluntarily for Mokbel.
- Not contact or attempt to contact any witnesses who are co-accused in several police investigations.
- Get a mobile phone, within 12 hours of his release on bail, which is strictly not a smartphone, and hand over the phone’s details to police.
- Keep his mobile phone charged and with him at all times.
- Hand over his phone whenever police ask him to, and immediately provide its PIN to unlock it.
- Give the company that operates his electronic monitoring device his mobile number within three hours of getting his phone.
- Not have any other phone except for the dumb phone, which has to be inspected and approved by police.
- Not use any other communication device or messaging service, including WhatsApp, Snapchat, Wickr, Viber, KIK Messenger, Zoom, Discord, WeChat, Signal or Telegram.
- Not use his mobile phone to message or call anyone overseas (except for the company that operates his electronic monitoring device).
- Not use a laptop or other computer to communicate with anyone overseas.
- Tell police within 12 hours if he does speak to anyone who is overseas.
- Not ask anyone else to communicate with a person who is overseas on his behalf.
- Tell police within 48 hours if there’s any change to his employment status, and give them details of what his job is and how much he is getting paid.
- Surrender his passport to police within 24 hours of being granted bail.
- Not leave metropolitan Melbourne.
- Not be within two kilometres of an airport, or any other port.
- Not leave Victoria.
- Not leave Australia.
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