Tony Mokbel awarded $1m for brutal prison bashing

Freedom after almost 18 years behind bars is looking extra good for Tony Mokbel with the drug kingpin set to receive a massive government payout.

Freed drug tsar Tony Mokbel has been awarded a $1 million payout by the Allan Government over his brutal bashing inside Barwon Prison in 2019.

The “award money” was paid to Mokbel after he sued the state over a “frenzied” attack on him by two inmates who punched him unconscious, stabbed him with a “shiv” and kicked him as he lay on the ground.

But Mokbel will have to wait for the money to hit his bank account.

The Allan government has “quarantined” the payout and advertised for Mokbel’s creditors and victims to make a claim.

“Creditors and victims in relation to criminal acts of Anthony Mokbel are invited to seek further information from the Secretary to the Department of Justice and Community Safety,” a state government advertisement states.

Tony Mokbel will have to wait for the money to hit his bank account.Picture: Jason Edwards

The majority of the $1m payout will not go to Mokbel though.

Mokbel, when contacted by this masthead, said he could not comment.

It is understood $750,000 has been absorbed by medical and legal costs while the remaining $250,000 has been paid into the Prisoner Compensation Quarantine Fund.

That sum will be held in quarantine for an initial period of 12 months before Mokbel can claim it.

Mokbel’s bashing almost cost him his life.

The then-53-year-old was rushed from the maximum security prison in Lara to a Melbourne hospital with stab wounds, a fractured skull, a brain haemorrhage and some of his teeth knocked out.

He also sustained traumatic brain injury in the frenzied attack.

Mokbel was rushed from the maximum security prison in Lara to a Melbourne hospital with stab wounds, a fractured skull, a brain haemorrhage and some of his teeth knocked out.

Since then his fortunes have turned.

In April, Mokbel was sensationally given bail as he appeals his case over the Lawyer X scandal.

It is likely that Mokbel will sue the state again for up to $1m after his appeal is heard later this year.

Mokbel can also sue his former lawyer-turned-informer, Nicola Gobbo – aka Lawyer X – for duping him.

During his evidence in a pre-trial hearing last year, Mokbel, who still has some speech defects as a result of the assault, seemed to have recovered from the attack.

It was launched by fellow inmates Teira Bennett and Eldea Teuira during another inmate’s birthday celebration.

Bennett and Teuira, both 21, were sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to the frenzied attack.

Both were already serving prison time for other offences.

Mokbel was freed after spending nearly 18 years behind bars. Picture: NewsWire / Valeriu Campan

County Court Judge Liz Gaynor described the bashing as “brazen” and “horrifically violent” when sentencing the pair over the attack, which the court heard had occurred after a media report said he was a “prison enforcer”.

Both men were members of a gang named G-fam.

“I see both of you,” Judge Gaynor said.

“You may think you are heroes, standing up for G-fam the way you reckon you did on this occasion.

“The only reason you are getting any attention is because it was Tony Mokbel.”

Mokbel, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2012, was the head of a drug cartel which Victoria Police dismantled with the aid of Gobbo.

Mokbel has also given evidence that Gobbo told him to flee Australia while he was on trial in 2006 over a cocaine importation.

He was arrested in Greece in June 2007, 15 months after absconding bail and fleeing Australia on a yacht named the Edwena.

Originally published as Tony Mokbel awarded $1m for brutal prison bashing