A former Australian private school boy on a European gap year became a human rights activist in Bulgarian prison, irritating authorities so much they tried to infect him with tuberculosis, supporters claim.
Twelves years ago, Jock Palfreeman was arrested in the former Soviet territory’s capital, Sofia, after police alleged he murdered a law student, 20, during a melee on the streets.
The former student at Sydney’s prestigious The Kings’ School, then 19, had always maintained he intervened to protect a gypsy, who he claimed was being picked on by a crowd of youths, including the man he killed.
Now, twelve years after he was convicted of Andrei Monov’s murder and the attempted murder of another man, Palfreeman, 32, will finally be set free, after a Bulgarian court unexpectedly granted him parole overnight.
For his Newcastle-based family, it is hopefully the end of a trying saga. But it is also one where they have witnessed their son and brother’s transformation from a wannabe soldier to a convicted criminal – and a leader of imprisoned men.
Bright-eyed backpacker Jock Palfreeman, as a young man travelling in Bulgaria in 2006, shortly after graduating from high school in Sydney
Another image of a young and free Palfreeman, before he got involved in a fight in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, during a night out with friends
Palfreeman, now 32, has been jailed since 2007. His release appears to be closer than ever after a Bulgarian appellate court ruled he was eligible for parole
Palfreeman was charged over the murder of law student Andrei Monov, 20, (left) in a melee on the streets of Sofia
Above, CCTV footage of the street brawl, which ended in Jock Palfreeman’s arrest and life-changing 12 year incarceration
In 2012, Palfreeman co-founded a union for Bulgarian prisoners’ rights, to draw attention to abuse and corruption in the prison syste,
The Bulgarian Prisoners’ Rehabilitation Association’s work led barrister Geoffrey Robertson QC to describe Palfreeman as a ‘human rights hero’.
But it also brought him the attention of irate prison authorities.
In May this year, claiming mistreatment, Palfreeman went on a 33 day hunger strike.
His lawyer, Kalin Angelov, claimed that Palfreeman had lost his job behind bars was being been denied access to the outside world, despite being a ‘model inmate’.
The hunger strike went on for so long that his family feared the strike could have lasting effects.
‘My fear is that the time is now approaching when starvation could cause permanent damage,’ his pathologist father, Simon, told the ABC at the time.
Palfreeman only ended his fast after Bulgarian authorities allowed him to conduct interviews with the media and his granddad was permitted to visit him in prison.
His lawyer, Mr Angelov, also made the extraordinary claim that Palfreeman had been moved into a prison hospital ward and kept with tuberculosis patients in an attempt to ‘deliberately infect’ him.
Palfreeman served time in the notorious Sofia Central maximum security prison (stock photo above, in 2001, during a protest about sanitary conditions in the jail)
Inside a Bulgarian jail cell with Palfreeman. In his work as in the prisoners’ union he co-founded he has railed against corruption and abuse
Palfreeman has won the support of a series of left-leaning activist groups – with messages such as this popping up in his native Sydney and in Sofia
Before he went travelling to Europe, Palfreeman was a student at Sydney’s prestigious The King’s School and St Ignatius Riverview College
In a documentary interview in 2015, Palfreeman claimed, from inside Sofia Central Prison, that he and his fellow inmates had repeatedly been beaten by guards.
He said once, in 2013, he was beaten twice in the one day.
He claimed sometimes guards would collectively beat prisoners, 40 against five, and complaints were never investigated.
He argued the system is so corrupt, that, at one point, the water for the whole of the prison was switched off.
So much money had apparently been stolen from the ministry in charge that they could not afford to pay for it.
Bulgaria has previously been found to have violated the European Union’s human rights laws against the torture and degrading treatment of inmates.
In a 2015 video interview, Palfreeman appeared to have grown a bushy beard and had developed an eastern European accent.
‘Whilst I’m here, I should use my time to try and improve the conditions and the rights of people in the prison,’ he said. ‘We are trying to reform the prison system.’
Now he is closer to freedom then ever.
A panel of three Sofia Appellate Court judges reportedly granted him parole overnight.
‘I’m extremely pleased,’ Mr Palfreeman’s lawyer, Kalin Angelov told the ABC outside court.
His pathologist father, Simon, reportedly said the family was overjoyed, but still awaiting details.
‘We’re hoping to be reunited with him as soon as possible,’ he said.