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Mokbel lawyer accuses top prosecutor of not ‘seeking the truth’
By Adam Cooper
Tony Mokbel’s lawyer has accused the office of Victoria’s top prosecutor of failing to “seek the truth” over the police informer scandal, as the jailed crime boss appeals against his convictions for drug trafficking.
Mokbel is serving a 30-year jail term but is fighting to have his convictions quashed given his past involvement with Nicola Gobbo, who was a registered police informer while also acting as his lawyer.
Nicola Gobbo with Tony Mokbel outside a court in 2004.Credit: Nine News
He launched his legal challenge in 2017 and his current lawyer, Ruth Shann, SC, has repeatedly been critical of the time it has taken prosecutors and Victoria Police to hand over documents she believes could be crucial in the appeal.
Ms Shann on Wednesday questioned whether the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, headed by Kerri Judd, QC, was fulfilling its role in Mokbel’s case.
“They’re supposed to be pursuing the truth and assisting the court to find the truth,” she told an administrative hearing before the Court of Appeal.
Ms Shann said while the onus was on Mokbel, 56, to prove his convictions should be quashed, prosecutors were obliged to assist the court in finding the truth given the state was to blame for the Gobbo scandal. Past clients of Ms Gobbo have already been successful in having convictions overturned.
Tony Mokbel is appealing against his convictions given his past connection to barrister-turned-informer Nicola Gobbo.Credit: Nine News
“Where arguably we’re dealing with the biggest scandal that the criminal justice system in Victoria has ever faced, which was done by the state, we don’t have a DPP who is, we say, seeking the truth,” Ms Shann said. “Why aren’t they obliged to go and get that document and assist the court?
“Why is it for the applicant in this matter to do everything to find material when the state holds it, and why is the respondent permitted to sit on its hands and passively approach aspects of disclosure and truth-seeking?”
Ms Judd didn’t appear in Wednesday’s hearing, but Victoria’s chief Crown prosecutor, Brendan Kissane, QC, told the court he and his colleagues had responded to a statement of facts Mokbel’s lawyers had lodged, and requests for other documents.
He rejected any suggestion the DPP’s office was not co-operating or acting as a “model litigant”.
“To suggest that the [office of the] director is not fulfilling its obligations, in our submission, is completely beyond the pale,” Mr Kissane said. “We have spent a long time going through the document, we have considered the position and we take our responsibility seriously.”
Ms Shann said her team didn’t have all the material that went before the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants.
But Mr Kissane said not all material that went before the inquiry was relevant to Mokbel’s case.
Mokbel’s legal challenge could be heard by three appeals judges in April.
Judicial registrar Deirdre McCann on Wednesday ordered the parties to exchange more documents by early April.
Mokbel watched the hearing on a video link from prison but did not speak.
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