Member of the parliament Louise Ellman claims that she had “dramatic new evidence which casts doubt on the conviction of jailed football fan Michael Shields.”

Shields, aged 21, was convicted for attempted murder of Bulgarian bartender Martin Georgiev on his return from a Liverpool match in Turkey in 2005. Shields is currently serving a 10-year sentence in the UK, after his deportation from Bulgaria in 2006.

Ellman told the parliament that she had a new witness statement claiming that two other people were responsible for the attack and called for a judicial investigation into the case, BBC reported.

According to the witness statement Steven Clare and Graham Sankey were the attackers of the Bulgarian bartender and Shields was not even present at the scene.

BBC quoted Ellman as saying that “on October 12, a respected citizen of Liverpool signed a witness statement…This reports that Bradley Thomson and Anthony Wilson, both present at the scene of the crime and found guilty of lesser offences, claim that two men were responsible for the attack on Martin Georgiev. …According to the statement, they allege that Steven Clare had punched Martin Georgiev and that, 'Shortly afterwards Graham Sankey dropped a large rock on his head as he lay prone on the ground'.

Sankey had issued a confession after Shields was convicted, but later withdrew it, BBC said.

UK’s justice minister David Hanson said that he did not want to “give false hope by saying the British Government could grant a pardon to Shields when he was not sure that was the case.”