Australia has launched the extradition process for its most wanted fugitive, Tony Mokbel, three days after he was arrested in Athens, Australia’s top police chief said yesterday.

“The extradition process is already under way,” Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said after meeting with Greek Police Chief Anastassios Dimoschakis in Athens.

Convicted mobster Mokbel, known as “Fat Tony,” was arrested in the southern Athens suburb of Glyfada on Tuesday after close collaboration between the two police forces.

He said he would fight an extradition request, fearing unsafe treatment in Australian courts. Mokbel appeared in an Athens court yesterday awaiting trial on charges of possessing a false passport. The court delayed reaching a verdict until June 22, pending further information from Greek police. Mokbel fled his country in March 2006 during his trial on charges of drug trafficking. He was later convicted in absentia of cocaine trafficking and sentenced to at least nine years in prison.