Bulgaria releases Australian Jock Palfreeman from Busmantsi detention centre

The Australian Jock Palfreeman, convicted of murder in Bulgaria and granted parole on 19 September 2019, has been released from the Busmantsi immigration detention centre and will be accommodated at an outside address.

Nikolai Nikolov, the Head of Migration Directorate, MoI: The passport is with us, the law on foreigners sets out in Art. 31 that the documents of a foreigner may be temporarily seized by the employees of the Migration Directorate when an order for expulsion and return has been issued.

He will be able to use a copy of the order, which he has. He has been handed copies of all orders, protocols, etc, he explained.

He remains in Bulgaria. The execution of expulsion order is suspended until the ban on leaving the country is lifted.

Jock Palfreeman was held at Busmantsi immigration detention centre since he was transferred from Sofia Central Prison on September 20 after the Court of Appeals in Sofia granted him a parole after he had served 11 years of a 20-year sentence. Palfreeman was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of Bulgarian student Andrei Monov in Sofia in December 2007.