Authorities in Bulgaria might not object if the UK would decide to pardon and release Liverpool fan Michael Shields.
A letter from Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov to campaigners fighting for Shields’s release hinted at the possibility, Liverpool Echo said.
The letter emphasised that both Bulgaria and the UK were signatories of the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons.
The convention allows each party to grant pardon, amnesty or commutation of the sentence according to its own constitution or other laws.
According to the newspaper, the letter read: “Michael Shields’ problems might also be solved by competent authorities in the United Kingdom.”
The letter could prompt the British government to consider “a pardon on the basis that student Michael… suffered a miscarriage of justice in Bulgaria,” the newspaper said.
According to City Labour leader Joe Anderson, who received the letter, the letter was a “major breakthrough in his campaign to win the freedom of Liverpool fan Shields.”
Liverpool Echo quoted Anderson as saying: “we hear what the Bulgarians are saying and that our country can commute or pardon the sentence…There is new evidence that Michael has been wrongly convicted of a crime he did not commit…Our government must do the honourable thing and pardon Michael.”
Arlene McCarthy, member of the European Parliament, was to meet Purvanov for further talks. “It has been our objective to seek the pardon of Michael and I don’t mind who does it – whether it’s the Bulgarians or the British government,” she said.
Shields was convicted of attempted murder of a Bulgarian bartender at the Bulgarian seaside on his return from Liverpool's champions league victory in Istanbul in 2005. Shields beat up the bartender and smashed his head with a cobblestone, when the Bulgarian tried to end a drunken brawl in which Shields was involved. In May 2005, Shields was sentenced to 15 yeas in Bulgarian prison.
According to UK’s Liverpool Echo, Bulgarian courts “refused to accept alibi evidence” in favour of Shields. In 2006, Shields was deported to the UK.
