Back to pokey for Eddie Obeid … A fresh experience awaits Moses … Decades of villainy … Leading NSW crime figures slotted … Vindication for ICAC’s findings and rule of law … Despair for The Tamil … Obeid Snr cast as a “political prisoner” …  Time to crank-up the Free Eddie campaign  

That’s twice the length of a decent sized crime novel, but a gripping page turner nonetheless (with maps). 

The offenders were granted bail, despite the Crown saying they were a flight risk. 

Currently, Lebanon can request extraditions from Australia, but Australia cannot do the same from Lebanon, where Eddie owns property. 

The Extradition (Lebanon) Regulations provide that the Lebanon is “an extradition country”. 

“The Regulations will enable Australia to deal with any extradition request received from Lebanon. Lebanon will not be able to grant extradition to Australia until further arrangements, such as an extradition treaty, have been concluded.”

Anytime soon we might see a reprised “Free Eddie Obeid” Twitter account, which cast corrupt Eddie as “a political prisoner”, akin to Nelson Mandela. 

The account came into existence in December 2016 when Obeid was sentenced to five years porridge for misconduct in public office (the cafe leases case). 

There was also a petition created on change.org inviting people to support of O’Beid Snr and to call for his release from the nick. A comment was added from someone called Moses:

“I’m worried that I’ll be sent to jail for corruption too.” 

Moses also has been the guiding hand behind a Twitter account called @Maardrix which rubbished the Crown’s case and prosecution witnesses during the trial before Fullerton. 

The more critical tweets about the prosecution have ben removed, but you can find some of them here. 

Fortunately, @Maardrix links to plenty of articles by Chris “The Tamil” Merritt, who has championed the idea that the Obeids are hard done by and that ICAC is a blight on the rule of law. 

The Tamil must be feeling pretty miserable that the Obeids and Macdonald have been found guilty and that ICAC has been vindicated. In fact, he claimed just before the verdict there was a “real possibility” that Fullerton’s judgment would not be in line with ICAC’s findings in Operation Jasper. 

The ICAC findings against the directors of Cascade Coal, who were involved in the Obeid/Macdonald corrupt dealings with the Mt Penny mining exploration licences, also were upheld by the NSW Court of Appeal.  

All in all, the Tamil’s life-long campaign against the corruption busters is in tatters, which is a shame for a champion tap-dancer from Newcastle.