Victoria’s Corrections Minister Ben Carroll has ordered a “comprehensive review” into the stabbing of convicted drug lord Tony Mokbel at a Lara prison last week.
“If there are any learnings from the incident we stand ready to make them,” Mr Carroll said.
The review comes as two men, Teira Bennett and Eldea Teuira, appeared in Geelong Magistrates’ Court last Friday via video link to face charges of attempted murder over the incident.
The two inmates also faced charges of intentionally causing serious injury in circumstances of gross violence.
The incident occurred a day after a newspaper report stating that Mokbel intervened in a standover racket run by Pacific Islander inmates.
CCTV cameras captured the incident at the maximum-security Barwon Prison, the court heard last Friday.
The attack left Mokbel unconscious and with serious head injuries and a stab wound to the chest.
Paramedics airlifted Mokbel to Royal Melbourne Hospital last Monday where he remained in a serious condition this week.
Police allegedly collected makeshift knives known as shivs in relation to the incident.
A 31-year-old man, who appeared to go to Mokbel’s aid in the footage, was released from hospital last Tuesday.
A magistrate remanded Bennett and Teuira in custody to appear before court again on 10 May.
Lawyers for the pair expressed concerns for their safety while in custody, given the high-profile nature of the case.
On Tuesday Mr Carroll appointed former New South Wales Court of Appeal Judge David Ipp to lead an independent review into the incident.
The review would examine a range of factors including the circumstances leading up to the assault, he said.
Justice Ipp is a former Commissioner of the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Mr Carroll also appointed former Commissioner of Queensland Corrective Services Mark Rallings to assist Justice Ipp in the review.
“Justice Ipp and Dr Rallings will provide their final report to government by the end of April,” he said.
Before the stabbing Mokbel had been serving 30 years in jail after a conviction in 2012 for his part in an elaborate drug syndicate known as The Company.
He fled in Melbourne in 2006 while on trial for drug trafficking, and hid in Bonnie Doon before being driven to Western Australia, where he set sail on a yacht, hidden in a secret compartment with its toilet.
He sailed to Greece where he was arrested 15 months later in June 2007.
