Jock Palfreeman, the Australian found guilty by Sofia City Court in December 2009 of the December 2007 murder of Andrei Monov and of the attempted murder of Anton Zahariev, lost his appeal in the Sofia Court of Appeal on February 21 2011.
(mainstream media reported at: http://sofiaecho.com/2011/02/21/1047622_sofia-appeal-court-confirms-jock-palfreeman-guilty-verdict-20-year-jail-sentence and http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/outrage-as-aussie-loses-bulgarian-appeal-20110222-1b2pt.html)
The court argues as if the case would not be political at all, saying in public “Jock Palfreeman was ready to attack anyone who stood in his way” and in no way mentioned the racist attack on the roma people and the option of Jock acting in self defence in that situation. There are several evidences supporting Jocks version of what happened: “When I came close to the group, I saw that one of the men had squatted and was hitting the man on the ground with his fist – was punching the man in the head. The rest of the men were standing next to him and were kicking the man from time to time. This was happening a few metres from the Ministry of Health in the direction of Metro Station Serdika. I pushed aside the man who was hitting the injured person on the ground. Then I kneeled to the man on the ground to see how he was. I thought that the gypsy was unconscious. I grabbed him from the shoulders to see whether he was going to react, but there was no reaction on his part. I asked him in Bulgarian Dobrai… which means “are you alright?” The man was either unconscious, or was so badly beaten that he couldn’t move and didn’t say anything at that point. In the meantime, some of the other men kept on kicking him, kept on kicking him all the time. I looked up to see what the situation with the other men was. Half of group was moving away towards Stamboliyski. The other half kept on kicking the man on the ground. No one hit me at that moment, maybe they thought I am part of their group Then I stood up and started chanting in Bulgarian to the men “Nazad, Nazad” Then the men around me started retreating towards Stamboliyski about a metre and I was still face to face. I stood up and went to stand between the man on the ground and the men around. I told these men in Bulgarian, Nema attaka, “don’t attack” which is what I meant, don’t attack him. At that moment that part of group that was moving further away came back. The people who were in front of me started coming towards me so I took the knife from my pocket of my trousers, I took the knife out with my right hand and I opened it. Then I lifted it up on the level of my head and I repeated “Nazad, Nazad” in Bulgarian. I thought that when these men saw the knife they would go away. I just wanted to them to move away from the gypsy. He kept on lying on the ground behind my legs without moving then these men started to come on me although I have the knife. They were saying Pedaraf, which means, a fag.”
(whole statement of Jock after his arrest at: http://freejock.com/documents/4Jock%27s%20pretrial%20statement.pdf)
The case is not over, Jock is allready for years in prison and needs continuing support. Spread the story, write him in prison, visit him:
Jock Palfreeman
Sofia Central Prison
21 General Stoletov Boulevard
Sofia 1309, BULGARIA
Dear comrade,
Just a note to say that there will be a Jock Palfreeman Solidarity Demo held at 11am on the 15th of March 2012 in London outside the Bulgarian Embassy.
Here is a link to the Facebook Event set-up to publicise the action.
In solidarity.
Stormy Petrel.