The BBC is reporting that hundreds of supporters of jailed Liverpool fan Michael Shields have marched to Anfield stadium demanding his release.

The protest has been planned to coincide with Liverpool's match against Blackburn Rovers, the team of UK justice secretary Jack Straw (pictured) who now has Shields's fate in his hands. March organiser, Labour councillor Joe Anderson, said it showed how much support there was for Shields.

Shields, 22, was transferred to the UK in 2006 after his 15-year sentence for the attempted murder of barman Martin Georgiev in Varna was reduced on appeal.

Merseyside Police said about 150 to 200 people had turned up for the march which started from St George's Hall heading to the Liverpool football supporters club in Anfield. Anderson said others had joined the march along the route and put the figure at about 400.

Shields's supporters, who include Liverpool players, clergy and politicians, were buoyed by last year's high court ruling that Straw had the power to order his release. The BBC reports that, although Straw now has the prerogative to issue a pardon, he has asked Merseyside Police to examine the facts of his conviction in Bulgaria.

"Merseyside Police are speaking to UK-based witnesses and studying new evidence which came to light after Shields was jailed," says the BBC.

Georgiev had a rock dropped on his head in Varna in May 2005. Shields was found guilty of attempted murder in a trial in Bulgaria after the incident but has always maintained his innocence.

At one point another Liverpool fan, who was staying in the same hotel, signed a confession that he carried out the attack, but he later retracted it.