Our first entrants into the Robing Room for 2009 are Melbourne lawyer Mirko Bagaric and Perth’s victims of crime advocate Patti Chong, writes Greg Barns.
Tony mokbel
Ganglands: Three criminal trials and a closure
The real freaks and monsters from the bloody Melbourne gangland wars will be on trial for murder in the Victorian Supreme Court in the coming weeks, write The Kooka Brothers.
Fat Tony finally becomes The Man Who Wasn’t There
If the past is another country then someone should tell Fat Tony Mokbel that the charges he was accused of today in the Melbourne Magistrates Court didn’t happen to someone else last Tuesday when he was still living in Greece, writes the Kooka Brothers.
Fat Tony’s mum reads him the riot act
Within minutes of taking up semi-permanent residence in the Barwon correctional facility, Tony Mokbel’s mum was on the phone to give him an earful, writes the Kooka Brothers.
Tips and rumours
Tony Mokbel and Opes Prime. According to a lawyers acting for one of the lending banks, apparently the Opes Prime crisis has been precipitated (at least in part) by the involvement of a huge amount of Tony Mokbel’s money which has been invested in or through Opes (using offshore companies or nominee accounts of course). I have […]
Why the Mokbel trial should be on TV
The only way to ensure fugitive gangland boss Tony Mokbel gets a fair trial is to televise it, write the Kooka Brothers.
Mokbel cries foul, but it’s Patel who should worry
If Mokbel had not skipped bail and fled to Greece then the publicity of which he now complains would not have become so problematic for him, writes Greg Barns.
Tips and rumours
Back in February Nick Minchin declined when invited by Tony Jones to breach National Security Committee confidentiality in discussing defence purchasing. But appeared to readily do so yesterday when defending the Howard Government’s decision last year to prop up, Weekend At Bernie’s-style, the Seasprite contract. And nice of Minchin to add to the sense that […]
Unwatched Underbelly has legal ears burning
The hottest DVD around is a TV series that hasn’t even been shown yet – Channel 9’s Underbelly. Why? If Underbelly portrays any person who is currently facing the courts on criminal charges in a poor light, then it might lead to that individual seeking a stay – or delay- in their trial, writes Greg Barns.
Underbelly faces legal action over Mokbel portayal
With eight days to go before the debut of the Nine Network’s most important program for four years, Underbelly, there’s strong talk the production has hit huge legal problems that have set the network and the producers, Screentime, at loggerheads, writes Glenn Dyer.
Could Channel Nine’s Underbelly undergo gastric banding?
Underbelly is due to start “shortly” on Nine and is being heavily promoted on air and during the Test Cricket. It is based on the book of the same name by veteran Age journalists John Silvester and Andrew Rule. But could there be a hold-up?
Migration has always skirted close to the underbelly
Discussion of Kevin Andrews and the Sudanese made me think of other migrant groups which have had trouble integrating and have had their own brushes with the wrong side of law and order, writes Glenn Dyer.
The “human rights lawyer” who’s defending Tony Mokbel
Now here’s a simple question for you all. If a lawyer expressed views such as; torture is ok as a form of interrogation in some circumstances; it’s OK for admissions obtained by inducements or force to be allowed as evidence to convict defendants, and that “rights have no foundation”, then you probably wouldn’t describe that person as a “human rights lawyer”.
Questions from the state of national emergency
As patriotic citizens, the Crikey crew want to play their part in assisting with the emergency in indigenous Australia. So we’ve drawn up some questions for the Prime Minister or his Justice Minister, David Johnston or even the AFP media unit.
Dear Age: I think your schadenfreude is showing
The recent shooting in Melbourne’s stripper strip rather prompts the question whether The Age, a journal which most often invites the marriage of the words quality and broadsheet in much the same way as Steve Vizard must suffer the conjoining of disgraced and businessman, is heading into the yellow end of the journalism spectrum.
