Australian documentary alleges intimidation of courts in Jock Palfreeman case
Controversial Australian documentary One Night in Sofia questioned events surrounding the death of 20-year-old law student Andrei Monov and the ensuing prosecution of 22-year-old Australian Jock Palfreeman.
The programme said that key witness statements that would have supported defendant Jock Palfreeman's version of events of the night of December 27 2007 were being blocked from the courtroom.
One Night in Sofia painted a grim portrait of the Bulgarian capital as a violent city fanned by ultra-nationalism and racism against the Roma minority. The programme also presented an unflattering view of the criminal justice system with a prominent Bulgarian political scientist describing it as "normal" that the deceased's family - and in this case one so prominent as the victim's father, a respected psychologist - would apply pressure on the system.
The programme opens with Jock's father, Dr Simon Palfreeman, and his stepmother, visiting Sofia to see Jock. "All my life I've believed in the system. Now for the first time I'm faced with a system I don't have confidence in," says Dr Palfreeman.
Jock Palfreeman claims that he saw two Roma boys being attacked and came to their defence. He says he lunged out with a knife when the group turned on him. The programme claims that crucial CCTV footage, which might have supported the young Australian's version of events, was not accessible because police claimed that "a freak blackout wrecked its hard drive".
The programme didn't really address why Jock Palfreeman deemed it necessary to carry a knife except that he says he's "always had bad feelings about Sofia...there are always problems here". He claims that that he'd been attacked with a knife six times while in Bulgaria.
The programme says that the fact that the victim was the son of a prominent individual weighs heavily against Jock Palfreeman. About 200 people attended Andrei Monov's funeral. At the original court hearing the judge apparently cried, refused him bail and called Palfreeman "a hooligan".
The narrator of the programme, Brenda Hawkins, presents Bulgaria as viciously prejudiced against the Roma population and even quotes one of Palfreeman's friends, Sonja Nicolova, as saying that "in Bulgaria we are racist...even I don't like gypsies". The programme presented Jock as popular with Bulgarian friends and quotes a middle-aged Bulgarian woman in Samokov, who befriended him, as saying "I look at him and start crying...the courts can be bought with money...coruption in Bulgaria is known all over the world."
The programme claims that a British witness and friend of Jock's - Lindsay Welsh - was never interviewed until very late in the proceedings and that the high standing of the victim's father, combined with what it calls the "ultra-nationalist" mood in the country, makes it hard for Jock Palfreeman to get a fair trial. Hawkins says that witnesses are changing key elements of their testimony. These include original witnesses who saw the gypsy boys being beaten. Other witnesses have failed to turn up at all, so prolonging proceedings.
Bulgarian political and social scientist Dr Evgenii Dainov, who has taken a keen interest in the case, is interviewed in the programme and delivers a damning verdict. "I don't have to imagine cases when witnesses are harassed and pressured to change their statements because it happens all the time. I'd expect the victim's father to put pressure on the entire structure of the law enforcement and judicial structure. I'd expect the judicial system to collapse under that pressure."
Dainov says he believes that "under normal circumstances you can get justice in this country" but adds that "if at any stage anyone puts any pressure on any link in the chain it seems that you can't get justice. So (in such cases) the rule of law does not apply because the law is different for different people and so this is a completely unsatisfactory situation".
The prosecutor, inverviewed for the programme, rejects such claims.
The programme said that key witness statements that would have supported defendant Jock Palfreeman's version of events of the night of December 27 2007 were being blocked from the courtroom.
One Night in Sofia painted a grim portrait of the Bulgarian capital as a violent city fanned by ultra-nationalism and racism against the Roma minority. The programme also presented an unflattering view of the criminal justice system with a prominent Bulgarian political scientist describing it as "normal" that the deceased's family - and in this case one so prominent as the victim's father, a respected psychologist - would apply pressure on the system.
The programme opens with Jock's father, Dr Simon Palfreeman, and his stepmother, visiting Sofia to see Jock. "All my life I've believed in the system. Now for the first time I'm faced with a system I don't have confidence in," says Dr Palfreeman.
Jock Palfreeman claims that he saw two Roma boys being attacked and came to their defence. He says he lunged out with a knife when the group turned on him. The programme claims that crucial CCTV footage, which might have supported the young Australian's version of events, was not accessible because police claimed that "a freak blackout wrecked its hard drive".
The programme didn't really address why Jock Palfreeman deemed it necessary to carry a knife except that he says he's "always had bad feelings about Sofia...there are always problems here". He claims that that he'd been attacked with a knife six times while in Bulgaria.
The programme says that the fact that the victim was the son of a prominent individual weighs heavily against Jock Palfreeman. About 200 people attended Andrei Monov's funeral. At the original court hearing the judge apparently cried, refused him bail and called Palfreeman "a hooligan".
The narrator of the programme, Brenda Hawkins, presents Bulgaria as viciously prejudiced against the Roma population and even quotes one of Palfreeman's friends, Sonja Nicolova, as saying that "in Bulgaria we are racist...even I don't like gypsies". The programme presented Jock as popular with Bulgarian friends and quotes a middle-aged Bulgarian woman in Samokov, who befriended him, as saying "I look at him and start crying...the courts can be bought with money...coruption in Bulgaria is known all over the world."
The programme claims that a British witness and friend of Jock's - Lindsay Welsh - was never interviewed until very late in the proceedings and that the high standing of the victim's father, combined with what it calls the "ultra-nationalist" mood in the country, makes it hard for Jock Palfreeman to get a fair trial. Hawkins says that witnesses are changing key elements of their testimony. These include original witnesses who saw the gypsy boys being beaten. Other witnesses have failed to turn up at all, so prolonging proceedings.
Bulgarian political and social scientist Dr Evgenii Dainov, who has taken a keen interest in the case, is interviewed in the programme and delivers a damning verdict. "I don't have to imagine cases when witnesses are harassed and pressured to change their statements because it happens all the time. I'd expect the victim's father to put pressure on the entire structure of the law enforcement and judicial structure. I'd expect the judicial system to collapse under that pressure."
Dainov says he believes that "under normal circumstances you can get justice in this country" but adds that "if at any stage anyone puts any pressure on any link in the chain it seems that you can't get justice. So (in such cases) the rule of law does not apply because the law is different for different people and so this is a completely unsatisfactory situation".
The prosecutor, inverviewed for the programme, rejects such claims.