Australia drug kingpin walks free after police informant scandal / Photo: William WEST - AFP/File
-
Brussels Education Unions Schedule Major November Protest Over Funding and Reforms
-
Crowds Gather at San Francisco Park for Elizabeth Holmes Lookalike Tournament
-
iPS Cell Research Accelerates Drug Discovery for ALS and Spinal Cord Injury
-
Central Tokyo Apartment Rents Forecast to Rise 11% by 2030
-
Rene Eyre Revisits Autobiographical Performance 'Say A Little Prayer' in London
-
London Museum Granted 24/7 License Ahead of November Opening
-
UAE's HCT Holds Record Graduation and Announces Major Training Expansion
-
Dana White Confirms Flight to Washington for Trump Meeting on Press Secretary Role
-
NASA Awards $10B Lunar Contract Framework to SpaceX, Blue Origin
-
Dengue Fever Expands Into High Himalayas as Climate Change Warms Nepal
-
Katy Perry Tells Fans Ex-Husband Russell Brand 'Should Be in Jail' During UK Concert
-
IoT Refrigerator Hacks Disrupt Blood Labs and Supermarkets Across Europe and US
Australia drug kingpin walks free after police informant scandal
One of Australia's most famous gangsters will walk free after prosecutors Friday said they would drop a planned retrial on drug trafficking charges.
Sixty-year-old Tony Mokbel -- one of the key figures in Melbourne's years-long gangland war -- was jailed for 30 years in 2012 after pleading guilty to masterminding an elaborate drug syndicate.
But his case fell apart after it was revealed that his high-profile lawyer at the time, Nicola Gobbo, was feeding information to police while supposedly defending her clients.
Mokbel spent about 18 years behind bars but was released on bail last April after a court ruled he had a strong chance of overturning the criminal convictions.
A court subsequently acquitted him of one charge and ordered a possible retrial over allegations he tried to import a commercial quantity of designer drug MDMA in 2005.
On Friday, prosecutors in the state of Victoria said they had decided not to pursue that planned retrial.
"This decision was reached after careful consideration of all aspects of the matter relevant to the prospects of conviction and the public interest in a retrial," the Victoria Office of Public Prosecutions said in a statement.
Prosecutors said they took into account Mokbel's age and health as well as time already spent behind bars.
"It feels really nice, and life goes on," the ageing mobster told local media outside a Melbourne courthouse.
And he said he was keen to go abroad, something he said he had dreamed about while in prison.
"It'd be great to get on a nice plane," he said.
Violence linked to Mokbel's group, known as "The Company", claimed dozens of lives and was later immortalised in the hugely popular Australian TV series "Underbelly".
Gobbo -- also referred to as Lawyer X and Informer 3838 -- claims that over 300 people were arrested and charged based on the information she provided.
A 2020 Royal Commission found Gobbo's double life during a period of intense gang bloodletting in Australia's second-biggest city were "fundamental and appalling breaches" of her obligations as counsel to her clients.
Y.Nakamura--AMWN
