Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel has walked out of court to applause, wearing a big smile, as he tastes freedom for the first time in 18 years.

The gangland figure was swarmed by media after being granted bail by the Court of Appeal on Friday morning.

Three appeal judges found he had a “strong” case in his bid to overturn his drug trafficking convictions.

Reporters and photographers were joined by police and the public filling the streets around the court in Melbourne’s CBD, as the 59-year-old walked out about three hours after his bail was granted.

The crowd broke into applause but Mokbel answered no questions from media as he got into a Mercedes-Benz and was driven away.

Inside court, he kissed his sister Gawy Saad and shook hands with lawyers, after the decision was handed down.

He had arrived at court on Friday morning from prison in an armoured BearCat vehicle, with dozens of police surrounding the gates, as he was whisked off to learn his fate.

The trio of Court of Appeal justices decided Mokbel should be freed on appeal bail as he had demonstrated exceptional circumstances to live in the community while fighting to overturn drug trafficking convictions as he was represented by lawyer-turned-informer Nicola Gobbo.

“Mr Mokbel will be granted bail,” court president Justice Karin Emerton said.

“This was a very unusual case.

“As he was required to, Mr Mokbel has established his circumstances are truly exceptional.”

Emerton then went a step further and assessed the merits of Mokbel’s appeal case.

Citing NSW Justice Elizabeth Fullerton’s pre-trial ruling in November, she said Mokbel was “deliberately misled and deceived as to the strength and nature of the prosecution cases” when he pleaded guilty to the drug offences.

“It follows that he has a very strong case that the deliberate concealment and non-disclosure of Nicola Gobbo’s actions should be regarded as vitiating the plea agreement and the pleas of guilty entered pursuant to it,” Emerton said.

In turn, she said Mokbel had “a very strong case” that his remaining drug trafficking convictions “should be quashed”.

The judges ordered Mokbel to be subjected to “extensive conditions” while on bail, including GPS monitoring via an ankle bracelet and bans on using a smartphone or encrypted software.

He cannot leave metropolitan Melbourne and cannot contact prosecution witnesses or co-accused.

Mokbel must obtain a phone, although not a smartphone, within 12 hours and give its number to police.

Saad, who had previously offered a $500,000 surety for her brother’s bail, had increased this to $1 million, the court was told.

Mokbel will live in her four-bedroom home at Viewbank, in Melbourne’s north-east, and she has undertaken to report hiim “immediately” if he fails to abide by his conditions.

Mokbel has not tasted freedom since his 2007 arrest in Greece, after he famously absconded inside a yacht while on bail with a $1 million surety from his sister-in-law Renate.

Emerton raised this “spectacularly extensive” breach of bail when explaining her decision but said his circumstances today, as a much older man who had spent 18 years in prison, were different.

“He has a clear incentive to remain in the jurisdiction and see the end of a process that began nearly 10 years ago,” she said, referencing Mokbel’s first appeal filed in 2017.

“It’s 19 years since the events in 2006, Mr Mokbel has aged since then and he has suffered a traumatic brain injury.

“He is not the man that he once was on medical reports.”

Mokbel’s barrister Julie Condon KC cited delays in hearing his appeal, the strength of his case, his poor physical health, strong ties to jurisdiction, as exceptional circumstances to prove his release.

He is eligible for parole in June 2031, while an appeal over his drug trafficking convictions will be heard later this year.

Mokbel will return to court for a directions hearing over his appeal on May 16.

-with AAP