Feared crime lord Tony Mokbel has been seen in public for the first time in decades after spending years behind bars.
The 59-year old was photographed in chains on Monday as he was led into the Supreme Court of Victoria in his ongoing battle for freedom.
Little has been seen of Mokbel since he was jailed in 2012 for 30 years on drug charges.
A grainy image of him was released publicly in 2019 after he was stabbed in a shocking jailhouse attack.
That image showed the critically-injured Mokbel splayed flat out on the concrete floor as paramedics worked to save his life.
On Monday, Mokbel glared at photographer Luis Ascui as he captured the rare frame of the one-time kingpin who was once Australia’s most notorious gangster.
He appeared to scowl at Ascui as Corrections Victoria’s elite Security and Emergency Services Group officers escorted him into the court house.
Mokbel could be seen handcuffed with his hands in front of him and chains shackled to his legs, barely recognisable after ageing badly while banged up in jail.
Crime lord Tony Mokbel enters the Supreme Court of Melbourne on Monday.
But dressed in a crisp white shirt, Mokbel still looks the part of his crime lord days during his various appearances in court.
Sporting a salt-and-pepper goatee, grey and balding Mokbel appeared to still be well-fed during his prolonged stay at Victoria’s maximum security Barwon Prison.
Mokbel was known for his snappy dressing during his years in the spotlight outside Melbourne courts in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Iconic images show him strutting along Lonsdale Street outside the Supreme Court dressed in a well-tailored suit and red tie.
Mokbel was known to be courteous to reporters outside court during his many appearances.
On Monday, Mokbel could only stare at the media pack positioned at the large gates of the Supreme Court alleyway where prison trucks drop their shackled passengers each day.
Mokbel has been attending court to hear the outcome of an appeal he hopes will aid him in his ongoing quest to be released from jail on the back of the Lawyer X/Nicola Gobbo scandal.
Tony Mokbel in 2000 outside the very court where on Monday he was pictured chained
Mokbel could only stare at the media pack positioned at the large gates of the Supreme Court alleyway where prison trucks drop their shackled passengers each day
Mokbel was guarded by elite prison guards on his escort from Barwon Prison to court on Monday
Mokbel appeared otherwise healthy despite years behind bars and a savage 2019 attempt on his life that saw him repeatedly stabbed by jailhouse rivals with a makeshift ‘shank’ knife.
During a hearing last year, it was revealed Mokbel continues to suffer a traumatic brain injury stemming from the attack and had been hospitalised for heart attacks.
Another hearing in February heard Mokbel claim he fled Australia in 2006 after receiving advice from disgraced lawyer Gobbo that he was about to be hit with three murder charges.
Mokbel was already facing a lengthy jail sentence at the time after being charged with serious drug trafficking offences.
Victoria Police’s Purana taskforce – targeting Melbourne’s gangland war – had already contained his criminal empire by restricting his access to $15million in cash and assets.
The court heard police seized real estate across Victoria and Queensland, including multiple properties in Brunswick, Noosa and the Red Lion Hotel in Kilmore.
Cops also took Mokbel’s Ferrari roadster and froze cash he held in the NAB and ANZ banks.
Mokbel is escorted by police officers after appearing in court, on June 8, 2007 in Athens, Greece. He had fled Australia after being tipped off he was about to be charged with murder
Mokbel and disgraced lawyer Nicola Gobbo pictured together when the gangster was still free
This photo of Mokbel after he was stabbed in prison was released by a court in 2019. Little has been seen of him in public since
Mokbel was so broke he could not afford to run the upcoming drug trial let alone defend a murder rap.
Gobbo was exposed as police informer superstar Lawyer X in March 2019.
She had acted for many of Melbourne’s crooks, including Mokbel and the now-deceased gangster Carl Williams.
Williams was bludgeoned to death in jail before he even got a chance to see his former lawyer implicated in the grubby scandal.
Mokbel has already enjoyed several legal wins over Gobbo’s meddling in his affairs.
A 2006 conviction for cocaine importation was quashed in 2020 due to the Lawyer X scandal.
Last year his 2012 sentence for drug trafficking 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.
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.
Tony Mokbel was a real life Tony Soprano back when the show first aired in 1999
She had been acting as barrister Con Heliotis’ junior and asked if she could come onboard.
‘I honestly didn’t realise she was a barrister. I thought she was just a clerk at Lewenberg’s office,’ he said.
Mokbel claimed Gobbo gave him the hard sell, assuring him she would work hard for him.
‘She was an extremely hard working barrister compared to others,’ Mokbel said.
‘She did all the administration stuff that a lawyer would do, which you don’t see from barristers. She was constantly telling me to ring her, she was constantly coming into see me.
‘She just put me on a pedestal … which was great for me because it was a big case.’
Mokbel claimed the pair would often discuss his legal matters on the outside over coffee and dinners.
The gangster claims he only fled in 2006 – mid-trial – because Gobbo warned him police were looking to charge him with murder.
‘She told me that I’m going to be charged with three murders and I should seriously think about absconding,’ he told the court.
Police later charged him with the murders of Lewis Moran and Michael Marshall at the height of Melbourne’s underworld war.
Tony Mokbel and his infamous wig, which he was caught wearing during his arrest in Greece after fleeing Australia
Mokbel said he trusted Gobbo fully, describing her as ‘the engine’ to his legal defences.
‘We’d discuss everything. She was the driving machine as far as legal advice,’ he said.
‘I trusted her fully. I trusted her more than Heliotis. I thought she was the staunchest person on earth .. I’m still shocked to be quite honest.’
Mokbel said he re-engaged with Gobbo after his arrest in Greece, hoping she could help his Greek lawyer stop his extradition back to Australia.
When back in Australia he would communicate with Gobbo on a ‘burner phone’ inside Barwon prison, which he had smuggled to him in a boxing bag by Williams.
Charges were later dropped against Mokbel on the Marshall case and he was cleared by a jury on the Moran murder.
The Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants, handing down its findings in 2021, revealed more than 1,000 crooks could be released or earn retrials because of Gobbo’s unlawful informing to Victoria Police.
Commissioner Margaret McMurdo AO concluded that the convictions or findings of guilt of 1,011 people may have been affected by Victoria Police’s use of Gobbo as a human source.
‘She told police about Mr Mokbel’s properties, finances, contact numbers, associates, and the vehicles and code names he used,’ Commissioner McMurdo said then.
‘She divulged the defence strategies and tactics used by Mr Mokbel’s legal team, both in his criminal trial and his extradition proceedings.’
Melbourne underworld figure Faruk Orman walked free in 2019 after 12 years behind bars after Victoria’s Court of Appeal found he should be acquitted due to Ms Gobbo’s actions while she was representing him.
