<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel's long-awaited appeal hearing has been set down for four days in September.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Mokbel, who was bailed in April, grabbed a coffee with his lawyers and then smiled and joked with them inside the Victorian Court of Appeal ahead of his case this morning.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>During the 15-minute directions hearing, Judicial Registrar Deirdre McCann set down the four-day appeal to start on September 2.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/port-melbourne-seven-people-arrested-after-man-found-seriously-injured-on-unit-balcony/84693153-ccbc-423c-b815-73d759390f9a" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Seven arrested after man found seriously injured on balcony in Melbourne</span></strong></a><strong></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Mokbel did not speak during the brief hearing but he was free to sit in the body of the courtroom, rather than in the dock.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The gangland figure is seeking his drug trafficking and importation convictions to be overturned because he was represented by barrister-turned-informer Nicola Gobbo.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Gobbo, a registered Victoria Police informer from 2005 to 2009, was acting as Mokbel's lawyer for four years before he fled to Greece in 2006 and continued to advise him when he was extradited in 2008.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/victoria-courts-drug-kingpin-tony-mokbels-longawaited-appeal-hearing-scheduled/18f1487b-fd3f-4654-8dee-933a2888ecde" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Mokbel pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking a drug of dependence for trafficking MDMA and methamphetamine in April 2011, after striking a deal with prosecutors.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He did not find out about Gobbo's status as an informer until the High Court lifted gag orders in 2018.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>NSW Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Fullerton in November found police had perverted the course of justice in a "joint criminal enterprise" with Gobbo to take down Mokbel.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She handed down the damning findings against the police and prosecutors as she ruled on legal questions relating to Mokbel's appeal.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/victoria-hamilton-woman-found-dead-man-arrested-homicide-squad-investigation/643d5d09-5d87-4570-bbff-57241e58cf59" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Man arrested after woman found dead in south-west Victoria</span></strong></a><strong></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Those findings spurred Mokbel into applying for bail in April, after serving 18 years of his 26-year jail term.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Two appeal judges and a Supreme Court judge determined the strength of his appeal was one of the reasons why he should be released back into the community.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Mokbel has been following 30 bail conditions since his release on April 4, including daily police reporting, an 8pm to 6am curfew and wearing a GPS monitoring device.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>His bail was also secured by a $1 million surety put up by his sister Gawy Saad.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The judicial registrar today extended Mokbel's bail to his September appeal hearing and also made orders for the parties to provide all material to the court by July 4.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The composition of the Court of Appeal bench that will hear the appeal is yet to be decided.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Mokbel ignored questions from reporters as he left court today with his barrister Julie Condon KC.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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