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 to 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.
In 2019, a grainy image of him was made public after he was stabbed in a shocking prison attack.
That image showed a seriously injured Mokbel lying on the concrete floor as paramedics worked to save his life.
On Monday, Mokbel glared at photographer Luis Ascui as he captured the rare image of the former kingpin who was once Australia’s most famous gangster.
He appeared to scowl at Ascui as elite officers from Victoria Correctional Security and Emergency Services Group escorted him to the courthouse.
Mokbel could be seen handcuffed with his hands in front of him and with chains on his legs, barely recognizable after aging behind bars.
Crime lord Tony Mokbel enters the Supreme Court in Melbourne on Monday.
But dressed in a crisp white shirt, Mokbel still looks like a part of his crime lord days during his various court appearances.
Sporting a graying goatee, the gray and bald Mokbel appeared to still be well fed during his prolonged stay at Victoria’s Barwon maximum security prison.
Mokbel was known for his snappy way of dressing during his years in the spotlight outside the Melbourne courts in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Iconic images show him strutting down Lonsdale Street in front of the Supreme Court dressed in a well-tailored suit and red tie.
Mokbel was known for being courteous to reporters outside court during his numerous appearances.
On Monday, Mokbel could only look at the press team stationed at the large doors of the Supreme Court alley where the prison trucks drop off their chained passengers each day.
Mokbel has been attending court to hear the outcome of an appeal which he hopes will help him in his ongoing quest to get out of jail following the Lawyer X/Nicola Gobbo scandal.
Tony Mokbel in 2000 in front of the same courthouse where he was photographed in chains on Monday.
Mokbel could only look at the press equipment placed at the large doors of the Supreme Court alley where the prison trucks leave their chained passengers every day.
Mokbel was guarded by elite prison guards during his escort from Barwon Prison to court on Monday.
Mokbel otherwise appeared healthy despite years behind bars and the savage attempt on his life in 2019, in which his prison rivals repeatedly stabbed him with a makeshift knife.
During a hearing last year, it was revealed that Mokbel continues to suffer from a traumatic brain injury stemming from the attack and had been hospitalized for a heart attack.
At another hearing in February, Mokbel claimed he fled Australia in 2006 after receiving advice from disgraced lawyer Gobbo that he was about to be charged with three counts of murder.
Mokbel was already facing a long prison sentence after being accused of serious drug trafficking crimes.
Victoria Police’s Purana taskforce, which is targeting Melbourne’s gangland war, had already contained his criminal empire by restricting his access to $15 million in cash and assets.
The court heard police seized real estate in Victoria and Queensland, including several properties in Brunswick, Noosa and the Red Lion Hotel in Kilmore.
Police also seized Mokbel’s Ferrari roadster and froze cash he had in 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 told he was about to be charged with murder.
Mokbel and disgraced lawyer Nicola Gobbo, photographed together when the gangster was still free
This photo of Mokbel after being stabbed in prison was released by a court in 2019. Little has been seen of him in public since then.
Mokbel was so broke that he couldn’t afford to run the upcoming drug trial, much less defend a murder charge.
Gobbo was exposed as superstar police informant Lawyer X in March 2019.
He had performed for many of Melbourne’s criminals, including Mokbel and the now deceased gangster Carl Williams.
Williams was beaten to death in jail before he even had the chance to see his former lawyer implicated in the dirty scandal.
Mokbel has already enjoyed several legal victories over Gobbo’s interference in his affairs.
A 2006 conviction for cocaine importation was overturned in 2020 due to the Lawyer X scandal.
Last year, his 2012 sentence for drug trafficking was reduced from 30 years in prison with a minimum sentence of 22 years to a total of 26 years with a non-parole period of 20 years.
Gobbo first met Mokbel at the Melbourne Magistrates Court in 1998, when she was acting as a junior to barrister Alex Lewenberg.
Mokbel claimed that he had acted on behalf of his brother.
In 2002, Mokbel said Gobbo visited him in jail while he was on remand on drug charges.
Tony Mokbel was a real-life Tony Soprano when the show first aired in 1999.
She had been acting as a junior to lawyer Con Heliotis and asked if she could join.
“Honestly, I didn’t know she was a lawyer. I thought she was just an employee in Lewenberg’s office,” he said.
Mokbel claimed that Gobbo gave him a hard face, assuring him that she would work hard for him.
“She was a very hard-working lawyer compared to others,” Mokbel said.
“She did all the administrative tasks that a lawyer would do, something you don’t see in lawyers. She constantly told me to call her, she constantly came to see me.
“It just put me on a pedestal… which was great for me because it was an important case.”
Mokbel claimed the couple often discussed their legal matters outdoors, over coffee and dinners.
The gangster claims he only fled in 2006, midway through the trial, because Gobbo warned him that police were looking to charge him with murder.
“He told me that they are going to accuse me of three murders and that I should seriously think about running away,” he told the court.
Police later charged him with the murders of Lewis Moran and Michael Marshall at the height of the Melbourne gangland war.
Tony Mokbel and his infamous wig, which he was caught wearing during his arrest in Greece after fleeing Australia.
Mokbel said he had complete trust in Gobbo and described her as “the driving force” of his legal defenses.
‘We would talk about everything. “She was the driving force in terms of legal advice,” he said.
‘I completely trusted her. He trusted her more than Heliotis. “I thought he was the most hardcore person in the world… To be honest, I’m still surprised.”
Mokbel said he contacted Gobbo again after his arrest in Greece, hoping she could help his Greek lawyer stop his extradition to Australia.
When he returned to Australia, he would communicate with Gobbo via a “burner phone” inside Barwon Prison, which Williams had smuggled to him in a punching bag.
Charges against Mokbel in the Marshall case were later dropped and a jury acquitted him of Moran’s murder.
The Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants, which presented its findings in 2021, revealed that more than 1,000 offenders could be released or retried due to Gobbo’s illegal tips to Victoria Police.
Commissioner Margaret McMurdo AO concluded that the convictions or guilty determinations of 1,011 people may have been affected by Victoria Police’s use of Gobbo as a human source.
“He spoke to police about Mr Mokbel’s properties, finances, contact numbers, associates and vehicles and code names,” Commissioner McMurdo said at the time.
“She disclosed the defense strategies and tactics used by Mr. Mokbel’s legal team, both in his criminal trial and in his extradition process.”
Melbourne underworld figure Faruk Orman walked free in 2019 after 12 years behind bars after the Victorian Court of Appeal ruled he should be acquitted due to Ms Gobbo’s actions while she represented him.