Here is a look at the life of Tony Mokbel, 59, one of Australia’s most notorious crime figures.

Born Antonios Sajih Mokbel in Kuwait to Lebanese parents in 1965, his family migrated to Australia when he was eight.

Grew up in poverty in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.

As a teenager, started out working at his brother’s pizza shop but within six years became the head of a multi-million dollar drug empire.

Early 1980s: Mokbel convicted of a variety of offences, including assaults, threats to kill, resisting arrest, possessing a gun.

1992: Sentenced to 12 months for trying to bribe a County Court judge.

1998: Convicted for amphetamine manufacturing.

Escape to Greece, drug trafficking and murder charges

March 2006: Mokbel disappears while on bail during a trial over the importation of 2kg of cocaine and sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison, a minimum of nine.

December 24, 2006: Arrives in Greece after fleeing Australia on a yacht he hid in rural in Victoria for eight months before driving to Western Australia to make his escape.

February 2007: Charged over the 2004 murder of gangland patriarch Lewis Moran.

June 2007: Arrested at a cafe in Athens and police apply to extradite him to Australia, later that month charged with a second murder – of kickboxer Michael Marshall in 2003.

2009: The Marshall murder charge against Mokbel is dropped by prosecutors and a trial over the Lewis Moran murder begins, however a jury finds him not guilty of that murder.

2011: Mokbel pleads guilty to two counts of trafficking a large commercial quantity of drugs, and details of his former murder charges are revealed after a suppression order is lifted.

2012: Jailed for drug trafficking for 30 years with a minimum of 22 years on parole.

2017: Mokbel files his first application to appeal his drug convictions.

2019: Stabbed in Barwon Prison and taken to hospital, suffering a brain injury, the same year his former barrister Nicola Gobbo is publicly outed as a Victoria Police informer.

2020: Appeal court quashes Mokbel’s cocaine conviction after prosecutors concede there had been a miscarriage of justice due to him being represented by Gobbo, his sentence and conviction set aside and a retrial is ordered.

2021: Prosecutors file a notice of discontinuance for the cocaine trafficking retrial.

2023: Mokbel’s total head sentence sentence is revised from 30 years with a minimum of 22 years, to 26 years with a non-parole of 20 years.

2024: NSW Justice Fullerton issues a judgment on legal questions ahead of his appeal of remaining drug trafficking charges, where she says police and Gobbo perverted the course of justice in a joint criminal enterprise to take Mokbel down.

April 1, 2025: Applies for bail on appeal due to delays in his long-awaited Lawyer X legal challenge being heard, the strength of his case and his poor physical health in custody.

April 4, 2025: Three judges will decide whether Mokbel will be released on bail, his first taste of freedom since his arrest in Greece 18 years ago.