Jock Palfreeman gets parole after spending more than a decade in a Bulgarian jail
Australian Jock Palfreeman has been released from a Bulgarian jail and was expected to be taken to an immigration detention centre while he awaits his return to Australia.
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Australian Jock Palfreeman has been released from a Bulgarian jail and is believed to have been taken to an immigration detention centre while he awaits his return to Australia.
Photographs show Palfreeman being led from Sofia Central Prison early on Saturday Australain time.
It was unclear exactly how he would return to Australia because he does not have a passport.
There has been widespread concern in Bulgaria folllowing a court’s decision to give Palfreeman parole, a decade into a 20-year sentence for murder.
Palfreeman told his parole hearing that he had learned from his time in jail.
“I have heard that the prison is a mirror of the society, then if the prison is the mirror of the society, why then we cannot discuss the act of the prison staff themselves,” he said.
“As much as I have been punished, as much as their orders have been taken away and the damages imposed by the Administrative Court, by the European Court of Human Rights for violating human rights rules.
“I have not violated anyone’s rights for eleven and a half years.”
A transcript of the parole hearing stated that Palfreeman has moved in a “positive direction.”
“Before the trial, the convicted person had no criminal record. And during the execution of his sentence in prison, the prisoner has never at any time disclosed that he could pose a risk, either to the rest of the prisoners, to the staff or the administration,” a translation of a submission of his behalf said.
Bulgarian officials have been concerned about Palfreeman’s parole, with the father of his victim saying the court owed the country an explanation.
ABC News reported Palfreeman’s father, Simon Palfreeman, as saying the family were overjoyed but waiting on more information.
“We’re hoping to be reunited with him as soon as possible,” Dr Palfreeman said.
The decision was a reversal of fortune for Palfreeman, a former student of Sydney’s elite King’s School.
The Sofia City Court had rejected an application for parole in July.
At that hearing Palfreeman, who was wearing a suit and a red tie, claimed he was being treated unfairly because he had spoken up for other prisoners’ rights.
The 32-year old was convicted in 2009 of the stabbing murder of law student Andrei Monov, 20, and the attempted murder of Anton Zahariev in 2007. He was sentenced to 20 years in jail.
He claimed he had acted in self defence and again apologised to the court at the July hearing.
“This is the first time I speak in Bulgarian. I have said many times I am sorry for the death of Andrei Monov, I never wanted this to happen,” he told the court.
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Earlier this year, Palfreeman went on a 33-day hunger strike to protest the unfair treatment he says he has suffered for his role in the Bulgarian Prisoners’ Rehabilitation Association, the country’s first prisoner advocacy union which he helped establish.
stephen.drill@news.co.uk
Originally published as Jock Palfreeman gets parole after spending more than a decade in a Bulgarian jail