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Sat, Feb 11 2012
British press react to Michael Shields' release
Justice secretary Jack Straw has expressed a wish to shake hands with Michael Shields, the Liverpool fan he finally freed after more than four years in jail.
This is just one of the revelations in the UK press following Shields' release from jail on September 9.
"If he wants to meet, I would be delighted to oblige," said Straw, quoted in the Liverpool Echo (no relation to The Sofia Echo), the local newspaper that has long campaigned for Shields' release.
The Liverpool Echo quotes Straw as saying that it was his meeting with Shields' parents on August 28 that provided the "final piece of the jigsaw" which convinced him that the 22-year-old was innocent.
"I had to be certain, and in this case the truth was stranger than fiction," said Straw.
Straw refused to be drawn on key elements which persuaded him that the confession made, and later withdrawn, by fellow fan Graham Sankey was credible.
He told the Liverpool Echo: "My role was not to decide whether anyone else was guilty of this crime, but to see whether or not Michael was innocent. I am pleased for Michael and his family that their long ordeal is now over. His name has been cleared. He is a free man and the conviction has been expunged from his record. He has a clean slate."
The same newspaper, in an opinion piece, comments that Liverpool's "united" front played a vital role in freeing Shields from jail.
"There are so many things that should never be forgiven or forgotten regarding the wrongful jailing of Michael Shields. But in the midst of all the joy and emotion surrounding his eventual release from his 'living hell' it is understandable that everyone should want to first focus on the positive.
"Put simply, a united Merseyside refused to give up on Michael Shields – and Michael Shields refused to give up on Merseyside.
"We knew he was innocent – and, in turn, he knew that he could count on the brilliant backing of his family, friends and thousands upon thousands of people he had never met, and may never meet.
"Michael, himself, spoke of that support, that 'tireless campaigning' on his behalf, at his press conference yesterday, when he thanked both Liverpool and Everton supporters – telling them: 'Your voices were heard. Thanks to you, I knew I would never walk alone.'
"Make no mistake, yesterday’s happy scenes can be directly linked to a campaign so strenuously fought that it couldn’t, in the end, be denied."
Another local newspaper, the Liverpool Daily Post, while rejoicing over Shields' release, said that many questions still needed to be asked about the whole affair.
"Some of them need to be asked in Bulgaria. The signs are not good from there, where a judge declared only yesterday afternoon that the original Bulgarian court had done its job 'flawlessly'. But even more questions need to be asked at home. Michael Shields came back to Britain at the end of 2006. It is now nearly three years later. Although we heartily congratulate Mr Straw at having eventually arrived at what we believe is the correct decision, it should not have taken that long."
National newspaper the Daily Mirror quoted the reaction of Liverpool actress Sue Johnston who had joined the campaign for Shields' release.
"When I heard the news I broke down in tears. Finally there was justice for Michael and his family. For four years they have been through hell. We have been campaigning and fighting for this," Johnston was quoted as saying.
The UK's Daily Telegraph, on the other hand, quotes the reaction of former foreign minister Ivailo Kalfin, who was also served as deputy prime minister from 2005 to 2009, who said he still felt Shields was guilty.
"There were several people that were with Michael Shields in his group on that night. They had been drinking until the morning and they beat the bartender and threw stones on his head.
"This is a young man who still has injuries and they will stay for life. There were a number of eyewitnesses. The case was reviewed several times.
"It was a very high profile case. It attracted a lot of public attention and I'm afraid we're giving a very bad signal to football hooligans."
Kalfin is also quoted as saying that if someone else has admitted ressonsibility for the attack on Shields, that the person concerned should do so in Bulgaria. "If there is new evidence, if there's somebody else who has admitted that they did it then the next move is for them to appear in a Bulgarian court."
This is just one of the revelations in the UK press following Shields' release from jail on September 9.
"If he wants to meet, I would be delighted to oblige," said Straw, quoted in the Liverpool Echo (no relation to The Sofia Echo), the local newspaper that has long campaigned for Shields' release.
The Liverpool Echo quotes Straw as saying that it was his meeting with Shields' parents on August 28 that provided the "final piece of the jigsaw" which convinced him that the 22-year-old was innocent.
"I had to be certain, and in this case the truth was stranger than fiction," said Straw.
Straw refused to be drawn on key elements which persuaded him that the confession made, and later withdrawn, by fellow fan Graham Sankey was credible.
He told the Liverpool Echo: "My role was not to decide whether anyone else was guilty of this crime, but to see whether or not Michael was innocent. I am pleased for Michael and his family that their long ordeal is now over. His name has been cleared. He is a free man and the conviction has been expunged from his record. He has a clean slate."
The same newspaper, in an opinion piece, comments that Liverpool's "united" front played a vital role in freeing Shields from jail.
"There are so many things that should never be forgiven or forgotten regarding the wrongful jailing of Michael Shields. But in the midst of all the joy and emotion surrounding his eventual release from his 'living hell' it is understandable that everyone should want to first focus on the positive.
"Put simply, a united Merseyside refused to give up on Michael Shields – and Michael Shields refused to give up on Merseyside.
"We knew he was innocent – and, in turn, he knew that he could count on the brilliant backing of his family, friends and thousands upon thousands of people he had never met, and may never meet.
"Michael, himself, spoke of that support, that 'tireless campaigning' on his behalf, at his press conference yesterday, when he thanked both Liverpool and Everton supporters – telling them: 'Your voices were heard. Thanks to you, I knew I would never walk alone.'
"Make no mistake, yesterday’s happy scenes can be directly linked to a campaign so strenuously fought that it couldn’t, in the end, be denied."
Another local newspaper, the Liverpool Daily Post, while rejoicing over Shields' release, said that many questions still needed to be asked about the whole affair.
"Some of them need to be asked in Bulgaria. The signs are not good from there, where a judge declared only yesterday afternoon that the original Bulgarian court had done its job 'flawlessly'. But even more questions need to be asked at home. Michael Shields came back to Britain at the end of 2006. It is now nearly three years later. Although we heartily congratulate Mr Straw at having eventually arrived at what we believe is the correct decision, it should not have taken that long."
National newspaper the Daily Mirror quoted the reaction of Liverpool actress Sue Johnston who had joined the campaign for Shields' release.
"When I heard the news I broke down in tears. Finally there was justice for Michael and his family. For four years they have been through hell. We have been campaigning and fighting for this," Johnston was quoted as saying.
The UK's Daily Telegraph, on the other hand, quotes the reaction of former foreign minister Ivailo Kalfin, who was also served as deputy prime minister from 2005 to 2009, who said he still felt Shields was guilty.
"There were several people that were with Michael Shields in his group on that night. They had been drinking until the morning and they beat the bartender and threw stones on his head.
"This is a young man who still has injuries and they will stay for life. There were a number of eyewitnesses. The case was reviewed several times.
"It was a very high profile case. It attracted a lot of public attention and I'm afraid we're giving a very bad signal to football hooligans."
Kalfin is also quoted as saying that if someone else has admitted ressonsibility for the attack on Shields, that the person concerned should do so in Bulgaria. "If there is new evidence, if there's somebody else who has admitted that they did it then the next move is for them to appear in a Bulgarian court."
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Miscarriage of justice?
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On September 9 2009 Michael Shields, who was jailed for 15 years for a violent attack in Bulgaria, was pardoned by UK justice secretary Jack Straw and left prison
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Michael Shields father has neither confirmed nor denied the news he was running against Jack Straw, the man who pardoned his son.
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The Sofia Echo
I was right mike shields is innocent sod the waiter he can not vote labour
Stefcho,
the problem with you people is that you get too personal.
Everything is a soup opera. Everything is about some one, or about what someone said.
Not that I care, but Stefcho you are the one living in a country you call shit hole.
We are not delusional enough to think that it's the greatest country in the world, but as a "red blooded Bulgarian" (I love that;), try as I may, I just can't come up with a reason as to why I should care if you decide to spend [...]
Read the full comment the rest of your life in BG, or say in Azerbaijan ...;) Not extremely material to me.
So, now that we've established that this tread in not about me, lets try to focus on the topic:
The bigger picture I think, is that the way the Brits are going, pretty soon there will be little difference between their justice system and ours.
Bad news for them, neutral to us, except that may be we'll be spared listening to their annoying preaching, although, knowing the Anglo-American nature, fat chance of that happening....
No_Justice and all others who dont believe in Michael's innocence - if you take time to watch the you-tube link already given only a moron would make statements like yours. I guess you would also say that eye witness accounts are better than dna. I just hope you guys get caught up in the Bulgarian system one day. Who you gonna cry to??
As UK citizen I am ashamed that our Justice Minister Jack Straw should have simply caved in to the pressure exerted by, it would appear, many hundreds of people. This is NOT how justice is performed.
There seems to be no denying that Shields was part of a thuggish, drunken gang of football hooligans and, if only by his presence, is partly responsible for poor Georgiev.
Free at last, I am so relieved that Michael has been freed and can go home to his family.
Another man admitted to this crime, what a joke that Michael was found guilty.
Stefcho, cant you get to your point without writing a god damn thesis!!! Oops sorry guess you have a PHD from Harvard
This comment has been hidden by the moderator because it contained квалификации.
Valeri,now I'm getting tired of your bitching and wining about American exceptionlism and British this or that, the fact of the matte is that the one time the Bulgarian court system has worked and put an expat away all you Bulgarians are yelling in the streets with joy, yet you continue to let lawlessness run wild in your country and don't do a dam thing about it, the Mafia runs this country and if you say otherwise your a fool. If your a figure skating Champion and hit someone with your Hummer you get a slap on the wrist and [...]
Read the full comment if you do it again, just another slap on the wrist so get off your high horse and the American bashing is sounding old, you sound like a child that has had his favorite toy taken away, get over yourselves, if you wany law and order in this country they dispense it to all that break the law, even the one's that your affraid of like the Mafia. The truth is that your prosecuters are pussy's and don't want to risk there life for a mere pence to do so, Bulgaria will always been a lawless country and has no business in the EU in the first place, they can't manage there own budget's, why is it that Romania can seem to move forward with some EU help grant it but you don't hear about all the corruption in Romania as you do here. The bottom line is if EU money comes into BG, the hands are out just looking for a handout, not to work for it just to have it because of a sense of intitlement. well your not intitiled to EU money, you have to do the work as promised before you get it or at least make a good faith effort to do so before you get it. Valeri, sell you property in the states and don't come back, we don't want people like you there anyway, it's not easy for us to be the greatest nation in the world with people like you in it.
Keep begging us for more military help and healthcare technoligies since we are the one's that invent them so all the world can benifit from them. You just don't seem to get it at all, you would rather point the finger at a NY govt for having a sex affair then all the good American does, your blind Valeri. Then to label all those that line up each day at the American Embassy as fools because they want a better life for themselves is really nice of you, I guess they should stay here and make 300lv a month and enjoy the good life as you do right? Get over yourself, not all Bulgarians have investment property in NY as you do and I'm sure if they did they would prob want to stay and enjoy living in America unlike yourself. Your just an angry guy that someone pissed you off in the states and now your anti America. Well most are not, sell your properites and goodbye Valeri and don't forget to turn in your American passport before you leave.
To those who doubt Michael Shields innocence, please visit Youtube and view an investigation by a proper police offier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia2F0n5WUTI&fea
Why isn't there a reaction from the Bulgarian government? Until when will they put up with the British arrogance?
Another innocent killer.
Just-a-B
what do you expect?
The Brits have vilified Bulgaria in politics and the press, used it as a punching bag to score points with their Eruo-sceptic electorate, for so long, that it's hardly surprising that their people can't possibly imagine that we too have laws and you can't handicap people in public and get away with it.
Unfortunately the Brits have their share of the infamous American sense of "exceptionalism" that is to say moral right to be special, and this is no way to build a European Union with the rest of [...]
Read the full comment us.
Bulgarian justice system is consistenly blaimed for being ineffective and corrupted. But I just can't believe to what I hear and read as an official statement of a British justice secretary:
The Liverpool Echo quotes Straw as saying that it was his meeting with Shields' parents on August 28 that provided the "final piece of the jigsaw" which convinced him that the 22-year-old was innocent.
this explanation of how a British justice secretary takes a decision/arrives at a conclusion is hollow, and outrageous.
The case should be reopened, all new evidences presented, and witnesses [...]
Read the full comment summoned before officially claiming that Michael Shield's is innocent.
That's a shame for British Justice System!
I wonder if there was a 3 way deal?:
Lockerbie bomber freed to Libya.
Bulgarian nurses freed to Bulgaria.
Shield freed to return to the UK.?
This would match Mr. Straw's statement that truth can be stranger than fiction.
It would appear that Jack Straw has appointed himself as Judge and Jury and totally disregarded Bulgarian Law.If this conviction has been overturned, the case should be reopened, Jack Straw summoned as a witness and extradition proceedings take place for the person claiming to have carried out the attack. It would appear that Jack Straw frequently meddles behind the scenes in other countries' affairs to the extent that according to Carla Ponti, he stopped her from continuing her prosecutions on the Ruandan trials because her success was interfering with his political manoeuverings. On the other hand, it would be nice [...]
Read the full comment for the Bulgarian Government to open up the DS files on Markov if they haven't already destroyed them.
Typical of a British politician to think a Brit couldn't possibly have commited a crime.
Jack Straw has no moral or legal right to 'pardon' someone convicted abroad, and he shouldn't have caved in to pressure from a few whingeing scousers. Shields remains a convicted thug in Europe.
Maybe someone in Libya could 'confess' to the Lockerbie bombing and we can all forgive Megrahi.