Historic decision could keep Australian Jock Palfreeman in jail
Former Sydney private schoolboy Jock Palfreeman could be the first person in 130 years to have his bail revoked in Bulgaria amid uproar from the community.
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Australian Jock Palfreeman would be the first prisoner in 130 years of Bulgarian legal history to have his court ordered parole revoked, his lawyer says.
Palfreeman, 32, remains in the Busmantsi Immigration Detention Centre, awaiting a Supreme Court of Cassation hearing, which has been moved forward to Monday, October 7 local time.
He had been paroled with almost seven years remaining on his sentence for the murder of Andrei Monov in a street brawl in 2007 in Bulgaria while he was on holidays.
Palfreeman always claimed he acted in self defence after he went to the aid of gypsies who were being attacked by a group of soccer fans.
The former Sydney private school boy’s parole sparked protests in Bulgaria as political groups, backed by the victim’s father, were angry at the decision.
Kalin Angelov said the reopening of his parole case on request of the prosecutor-general was unprecedented.
“In 130 years, this has never happened, if they put him back in prison given that his parole had already been secured,” he told News Corp Australia.
“According to our legal system, this is final.”
Mr Angelov said the reopening of the case was absurd.
His comments come after almost 300 Bulgarian judges signed a letter criticising the decision to reopen the case, arguing that it undermined the independence of the court.
And human rights campaigners who back Palfreeman have been threatened to be deregistered.
The right-wing VRMO party has demanded that the Bulgaria Helsinki Committee be banned.
Krassimir Kanev, who is part of the BHC and has previously represented Palfreeman in human rights cases, said he has spoken to Palfreeman this week.
“He (Palfreeman) said he was willing to be deported from Bulgaria,” Mr Krassimir said.
“(Palfreeman) was anxious and angry he was being kept in immigration detention. He already has his passport, this is why he’s really upset.”
Palfreeman was granted parole by a panel of three judges last month and it was expected he would return to Australia as soon as he was granted a passport.
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He now has an Australian passport.
Palfreeman also has another case to fight against his ban from leaving Bulgaria, with a date yet to be fixed for a hearing.
Bulgaria’s Supreme Court of Cassation said in a statement: “Because of the exceptional public response to the case, and in view of the widespread release in the public arena of the provisionally released Jock Palfreeman, he is deprived of the right to move freely.
“Provided for the possibility of holding the cassation proceedings in short terms, with the case being rescheduled for an earlier date — October 7, 2019 from 9.00am and engaged for review and resolution of the case is consistent with the official involvement of judges and providing sufficient time for the preparation of the parties.”
stephen.drill@news.co.uk