Faruk Orman, who was jailed for the 2002 murder of underworld figure Victor Peirce, will walk free from a Melbourne court after his conviction was quashed in the wake of the Lawyer X scandal.
Orman sat crying and wiping his eyes as his conviction was thrown out by the full bench of the Victorian Court of Appeal on Friday morning.
He was found guilty by a Supreme Court jury of being the getaway driver in the killing of Peirce, who was shot dead as he sat in his car in Port Melbourne in 2002.
The case against him was thrown into doubt after it was revealed his lawyer, Nicola Gobbo, was also a police informer and was heavily involved in the evidence used against him.
Orman has served 12 years of his 20-year sentence.
Friends and family, many of whom were in tears, hugged Orman as he leaned over the glass of the dock after the hearing ended, while others lined up to get into court to see him.
Earlier, he had stood smiling and waving after being brought into court.
Last month, the State Government was forced to intervene and grant Orman the right to make a bid for freedom, saying there was enough evidence to point to a miscarriage of justice.
It is the first conviction to be quashed since the use of Ms Gobbo as a police informer was publicly exposed.
The Court of Appeal ruled there had been a substantial miscarriage of justice in the case against Orman.
The key witness against Orman was a gangland supergrass and a client of Ms Gobbo’s.
While acting as a defence lawyer for Orman in November 2007, Ms Gobbo was contacted by police explaining that the key witness against him was about to refuse to give evidence.
She told police they should visit the witness in prison and convince him to give evidence, which they did.
The President of the Court of Appeal, Chris Maxwell, said Ms Gobbo’s actions were a fundamental breach of her legal obligations to her client.
The Court agreed with the Director of Public Prosecutions, Kerri Judd, that there had been a substantial miscarriage of justice in the case.
More to come.
-ABC
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