Mokbel starts his first full day of freedom with a morning walk
Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel spent his first morning of freedom in almost 18 years walking to a park near his sister’s home in Melbourne’s north-east where he will be living during his time on bail.
Mokbel emerged from his new digs early on Saturday holding hands with a dark-haired woman, trailed by his sister Gawy Saad and her husband Youssef. With a waiting press pack in tow, the family joined dog walkers at a Viewbank park for a stroll.
They did not take questions, with Mokbel saying he couldn’t comment while court proceedings were ongoing.
“Proceedings are afoot. I can’t say anything,” he told Nine News.
The former gangland boss once boasted his own fashion label (cheekily named “LSD”) in his days running a multimillion-dollar drug empire. But on Saturday, he opted for a low-key black sports jacket and shorts, knowing the new accessory on his ankle – an electronic monitoring bracelet – would catch enough attention.
The 59-year-old was granted bail on Friday by three Court of Appeal judges after spending nearly two decades behind bars.
Tony Mokbel and his family on Saturday.Credit: Alex Coppel
He was imprisoned for drug trafficking, charges his legal team argue have been corrupted by the Lawyer X scandal.
Having spent most of the last decade in Barwon prison’s high-security units, Mokbel now faces a strict new bail regimen. He is subject to about 30 conditions, including a curfew, daily reporting at a nearby police station – which he did just after 9.30am Saturday – and a ban on using smartphones or encrypted apps. He is paying $25,000 a year to a private bail company to have his movements tracked via an ankle bracelet.
