SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) - An Australian man released after serving 11 years in a Bulgarian prison over a fatal stabbing is free to return home following a decision by the country’s highest court, which refused to send him back to prison.
The Supreme Court of Cassation on Thursday rejected a petition by the country’s chief prosecutor to revoke the parole a lower court granted to 33-year old Jock Palfreeman. Thursday’s decision cannot be appealed.
“The request for reopening of the case is inadmissible and should be dismissed and the proceedings terminated,” the court said in a statement.
Palfreeman was convicted of fatally stabbing a Bulgarian student during a 2007 brawl. Last September, a three-judge Court of Appeals panel unexpectedly ordered him freed 11 years into his 20-year prison sentence.
Chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov - who has since retired - petitioned the Supreme Court of Cassation to suspend Palfreeman’s parole and review the panel’s ruling, saying that two of the judges faced a conflict of interest.
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