Melbourne‘s most notorious gangster Tony Mokbel is set to walk free from prison after winning a sensational bail application 18 years after being imprisoned.
Mokbel will be released on Friday after the Court of Appeal agreed he had been set up by disgraced former lawyer and police informer Nicola Gobbo.
Mokbel previously said the first two things he will do upon his release will be seeing his children and visiting his mother’s grave, the Herald Sun reported.
The decision to release Mokbel stirred audible gasps from his supporters, who crammed into the courthouse alongside a full-blown media circus.
Mokbel had been treated like a celebrity from within the prison dock, shaking hands and chatting with his supporters – two of which left court in an orange Lamborghini on Tuesday.
He had arrived in court on Friday once again trapped in the belly of an armoured vehicle and escorted inside by burly Security and Emergency Services Group guards.
Mokbel will need to be processed by authorities before being released back onto the streets a free man.
For now, Mokbel will reside with his sister Gawy Saad and her family at a unit in Viewbank in Melbourne’s northeast.
Tony Mokbel will finally be released after spending 18 years behind bars on drug charges
Mokbel’s supporters leave the Supreme Court on Tuesday following his bail application
While free on bail, Mokbel will be forced to wear a GPS ankle bracelet that will monitor his every movement.
He will need to report to the local police station every day and adhere to a strict curfew between 11pm and 6am.
The court heard Mokbel had ‘strong family support’ and a mystery long-term de facto partner.
In setting Mokbel free on bail, Justices Karin Emerton, Robert Osborn and Jane Dixon agreed he stood a solid chance of winning his appeal against three convictions for drug trafficking, which is expected to be heard later this year.
If he wins, it will likely result in his complete release.
His current sentence expires in 2037, but he is eligible for parole in June 2031.
Prosecutors had argued Mokbel could not be trusted to comply with his bail conditions given his infamous escape to Greece just before Christmas 2006.
Mokbel’s barrister Julie Condon, KC, told the court her client had ‘exceptional circumstances’ for being released on bail, describing his case as ‘very rare’.
His bail had hinged on nine factors, including his poor health, the strength of his appeal case and his circumstances in custody.
Nicola Gobbo, aka Lawyer X (left), with Tony Mokbel before he fled overseas
Mokbel will reside with his sister Gawy Saad in Viewbank until his appeal is heard
Mokbel had been languishing in jail since 2007 when he was caught in Greece after going on the run from Melbourne while on bail.
His sister-in-law Renate Mokbel had put up a $1million surety to secure his release – a decision that saw her later jailed when she refused to cough-up the cash.
Known more widely as ‘Lawyer X’, Gobbo had been Mokbel’s lawyer while informing against him in the early 2000s when he was a kingpin of Melbourne’s deadly Underbelly War.
It was a 12-year war that began in January 1998 and ended in August 2010 with 36 underworld figures dead.
Mokbel had been facing the drug charges he is appealing now when he was tipped off by Ms Gobbo that he was about to be charged over the murder of Michael Marshall.
Marshall had been shot in the head outside the South Yarra home he shared with his wife and five-year-old son in 2003.
Police had believed the now-dead crime boss Carl Williams was contracted by Mokbel to kill Marshall, who he mistakenly believed had murdered his great friend, another gangland figure Willy Thompson.
The charges were ultimately withdrawn in 2009.
Mokbel had attended court in an armoured vehicle guarded heavily by armed officers
Mokbel’s barrister Julie Condon, KC, (left) secured his release on bail
Mokbel supporters leave court on Tuesday
Mokbel had been jailed in 2012 over Victoria Police drug operations code-named Quills, Magnum, Plutonium and Orbital.
In 2023, that sentence was slashed from 30 years’ jail with a minimum term of 22 years to a total of 26 years with a non-parole period of 20 years.
It had been Gobbo’s meddling in his affairs on the Plutonium job that saw that conviction dumped.
However, Mokbel’s defence argued Gobbo’s fingerprints had been all over his decision to plead guilty to the remaining three drug busts.
Ms Condon said it was ‘unthinkable’ Mokbel would not have fought his drug charges had he known his lawyer was a police informant.
While not directly acting for him on Quills, Magnum and Orbital, the court heard Gobbo had convinced her own clients – cohorts of Mokbel – to ‘roll’ on him.
She had done so while reporting back to her Victoria Police handlers.
It was this decision that provoked the ire of Justice Osborn during the prosecution’s closing arguments to keep Mokbel caged.
Justice Osborn suggested Mokbel would be eligible for parole today should he win his appeal on just one of the three outstanding convictions.
Mokbel was captured in Greece wearing a shabby, ill-fitting wig
Mokbel’s fake identification while on the run
The court heard while Magnum was the more solid case, the others were on unsteady ground because of Gobbo’s meddling.
Magnum, which earnt Mokbel 20 years, had seen him convicted for trafficking more than 41kg of methylamphetamine while he was already on the run.
Orbital – a six year stint – saw him attempt to buy drugs off undercover cops while Quills (13 years) saw him busted for peddling MDMA.
As it stands, Mokbel has already served most of the jail time on Quills and Magnum, with the remainder attributed largely to Orbital.
The bail decision came on the back of a bombshell ruling in December by New South Wales judge Elizabeth Fullerton who found Victoria Police’s use of Ms Gobbo was part of a ‘joint criminal enterprise’.
Justice Osborn put it to the prosecution if Mokbel’s guilty plea was improperly obtained due to the prosecution and Victoria Police’s failure to disclose to him the extent of Ms Gobbo’s meddling, it could not be accepted.
He further suggested Mokbel would not have received the 20-year sentence on Magnum if Orbital and Quills were struck out.
‘He’s not a serious drug offender if it’s only Magnum. And he’s not an incorrigible offender,’ Justice Osborn said.
Tony Mokbel was almost killed in a prison stabbing in 2019
Tonyh Mokbel as he appeared outside court in 2006 before he fled the country
Mokbel’s sister-in’law Renate Mokbel did jail time after he fled and left her having to pay a $1million surety
‘At that point, with time served of 14 years, he’s squarely in … the range of the non-parole period.’
Gobbo had first met Mokbel in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in 1998 when she was acting as a junior for barrister Alex Lewenberg.
Mokbel claimed she had been acting on behalf of his brother.
In 2002, Mokbel said Gobbo visited him in jail while he was on remand for drug charges.
Mokbel claimed Gobbo gave him the hard sell, assuring him she would work hard for him.
A Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants later found Gobbo had been hellbent on taking down Mokbel’s criminal empire and provided police with a ‘volume of information’.
More to come…