Obeid's sentencing hearing delayed

A date for Eddie Obeid's sentencing hearing is due to be set after a judge gets an update on his medical condition after he suffered a stroke.

Former NSW State Labor minister Eddie Obeid

Former NSW minister Eddie Obeid's misconduct sentencing has been delayed after he suffered a stroke. (AAP)

Former NSW minister Eddie Obeid's misconduct sentencing hearing has been delayed because of the stroke he suffered last week.

In the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday, Justice Robert Beech-Jones vacated the August 12 hearing date in relation to Obeid's conviction for wilful misconduct in public office in 2007 over retail leases at Sydney's Circular Quay.

The judge was told the 72-year-old was discharged from hospital on Monday and he adjourned the case to August 18 so he could get an update on his medical condition and fix another date for sentencing submissions.

Brad Hughes SC, for Obeid, said the application to defer the hearing was "not a delaying tactic at all" but related to his medical condition.

In June, the NSW Supreme Court jury found he lobbied a senior public servant about lucrative Circular Quay leases without revealing his family's stake in the outlets.

Justice Beech-Jones noted a neurologist's report which said Obeid was admitted to St Vincent's Hospital on Thursday when he was experiencing unsteadiness.

He was subsequently found to have had an acute stroke and was transferred to St Vincent's private hospital on the Friday and discharged on Monday.

Medical material - referring to two by-pass operations and a psychological report - had been prepared for the sentencing hearing but this would need to be "revisited", said Mr Hughes.

Obeid and his son Moses are facing a five-day committal hearing at the Downing Centre Local Court on August 29.

They are charged with conspiracy over the issuing of a coal mining exploration licence on Obeid family land at Mount Penny in the Bylong Valley near Mudgee.

In 2013, the Independent Commission Against Corruption found the Mt Penny coal exploration licence enabled the Obeid family to make $30 million.

On Tuesday afternoon in the Supreme Court, Justice David Hammerschlag will hear final submissions in a civil case brought by the Obeid family against ICAC, its former commissioner David Ipp, former counsel assisting Geoffrey Watson SC and other former officers.

Eddie Obeid's lawyer has contended the one-time Labor powerbroker was denied procedural fairness at the hearing which found he acted corruptly over the granting of the coal exploration licence.


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Source: AAP



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