Mr E Obeid Not Happy in Jail

Disgraced former NSW Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid has launched legal action to secure his release from prison just days after he was sentenced to a five years term for misconduct over his family’s secret deals over lucrative leases in Circular Quay.
Mr Obeid, a former state government minister, will appear at the Court of Criminal Appeal tomorrow morning in an attempt to secure his release despite failing to have bail granted on Thursday after being sentenced to a three year non-parole term.
If he is successful, Mr Obeid may be out of prison before Christmas, having spent just days in prison, after judge Robert Beech-Jones said “no penalty other than imprisonment” was appropriate for the former political heavyweight.
Mr Obeid, the first state government minister to be jailed for corruption in public office since Rex “Buckets” Jackson in 1987, was found guilty of lobbying a maritime official in 2006 to secure favourable outcomes on café leases located at Circular Quay over which his family had an interest.
Despite objections by Mr Obeid’s defence lawyers, Justice Beech-Jones said mitigating factors such as his close-knit family and ill health were of “no real assistance” to the man’s plea for no jail time.
Mr Obeid will next year face another criminal trial, this time over an allegedly corrupt $30 million coal deal at Mount Penny near Mudgee.