Notorious crime boss Tony Mokbel is awarded $1million over brutal prison attack - but there's a catch
Melbourne gangland boss Tony Mokbel has been awarded $1million from the Victorian government after he was brutally attacked by two other inmates.
Two inmates knocked Mokbel unconscious and stabbed him with a 'shiv' during the attack at Bowral Prison in 2019.
Mokbel, then 53, had to be rushed from the maximum security prison in Lara to Melbourne Hospital to be treated for a traumatic brain injury, a brain haemorrhage and stab wounds. He also lost several teeth in the attack.
The gangster sued the state over the attack, leading to the massive payout from the Allan government on Friday.
But most of the money will not go to Mokbel himself.
About $750,000 has gone towards medical and legal costs while the remaining $250,000 has been paid into the Prisoner Compensation Quarantine Fund.
While the money is held in quarantine for 12 months, creditors and victims of Mokbel will have the opportunity to make a claim on it, the Herald Sun reports.
Mokbel famously fled Australia on a yacht in 2006 while he was on trial over a cocaine importation, only to be arrested a year later in Greece.
The former drug cartel head was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2012.
In April, the 59-year old was released on bail after almost two decades in jail.
He was pictured beaming as he walked down the steps of the Victorian Supreme Court of Appeal to be reunited with his friends and family.
Mokbel said nothing as he walked through a police cordon shielding him from a horde of journalists and other onlookers.
The jailbird gangster's release attracted the largest media scrum outside a Melbourne court since George Pell appeared at court for a preliminary hearing in 2017.
Daily Mail Australia revealed Mokbel's first act after being released was to visit the grave of his mother, who died in 2013.
His appeal against three convictions for drug trafficking will be heard later this year.
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