Call For International Solidarity With Anti-fascist Jock Palfreeman

A few days ago Australian anti-fascist Jock Palfreeman was assaulted in Sofia Central Prison in Bulgaria (he says it was not “too badly”) but yesterday July 6 the same guard assaulted another prisoner, an elderly man, and some of that man’s compatriots came to his assistance. These seven were then set upon by 40 guards, who brutally beat them.

Jock, in his role of secretary of the Bulgarian Prisoners Association, phoned a number of lawyers to help defend those assaulted. Now Jock has been threatened by the same prison guard has threatened him with another beating.

It is no surprise that not only Jock’s role within the prison with the Bulgarian
Prisoners Association but also because of the various days of action for Jock being organised around the globe to highlight his case. You can contact the Bulgarian prison authorities details below or organise a protest at your nearest Bulgarian embassy or consulate.

Addresses to post, fax and email your letters of protest to:
Krassimira Vocheva
Head Prosecutor-Sofia
No.2 Vitosha blvd
Sofia
BULGARIA
Tel: +359 28051500
Email via: prb.bg/main/bg/pages/infcenter
NB: the fields on the form translate as:
To:
Name & Surname:
Full address:
Phone:
Your email:
Complaint or question (10000 characters):
Code:

Borish Velchev
Head Prosecutor-Sofia
No.2 Vitosha blvd
Sofia
BULGARIA
Tel: +359 28051500
Email via: prb.bg/main/bg/pages/infcenter

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria
Address: 2 Aleksander Zhendov Str
Sofia 1040
BULGARIA
Tel: +359 2 948 2999
www.mfa.bg/en/contact (ready form for sending messages from their website, very
helpful)

Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria LONDON
186-188 Queen’s Gate
London SW7 5HL
Tel.: (0044) (0) 207 584 9400, (0) 207 584 9433
Fax: (0044) (0) 207 584 4948
Email: information@bulgarianembassy.org.uk

Information, Public Relations and European Communication Directorate
Director: Sofia Vladimirova
Tel: +359 2 971 1408. OR +359 2 971 3778. OR +359 2 948 2218.
Fax: +359 2 870 3041
Email: iprd@mfa.government.bg

Ministry’s Reception Desk
Tel: +359 2 948 2018 or +359 2 971 1054
(opening hrs 09.30 – 12.00 and 14.00 – 16.00)

Ministry of Justice
No 1 Slavanska st
Sofia 1040
BULGARIA
Email: pr@justice.government.bg

Finally, please write to Jock, even if it’s only a ‘good luck’ postcard. Any letters
and postcards will help to keep Jock’s spirit up and feeling positive. All will be
gratefully received. You can write to Jock at the following address:

Jock Palfreeman
Sofia Central Prison,
21 General Stoletov Boulevard,
Sofia 1309,
h2. BULGARIA

International Week of Solidarity with Anti-Fascist Prisoner Jock Palfreeman

via Indymedia UK

A call out for solidarity with Anti-fascist prison resister Jock Palfreeman

We are urgently calling all anarchist, anti-fascist and other anti-authoritarian left wing groups to act in solidarity with Jock Palfreeman (full story of his case is in the attached appeal below). Jock has already served several years of his 20 year sentence in Bulgaria. He actively works towards organising his fellow prisoners and highlights cases of repression by the prison authorities. He is one of the founders of the Bulgarian Prisoners Association. In the last few years, the response to his imprisonment and calls for solidarity with him from the anarchist and anti-fascist movement have been underwhelming. He needs more groups and individuals to join the campaign for his freedom. His family and some liberals have been organising support for him and trying to raise money for his fine; but Jock was always asking for a more direct kind of solidarity other than just politely asking the authorities to be nice. He needs people to not only constantly put pressure on the Bulgarian authorities in the form of letters and emails, but also organise demos and pickets outside embassies and/or any other Bulgarian institutions, generally spreading awareness about his case.

Please keep publishing information about Jock on your blogs, websites and social media. We hope you will all join the upcoming International Week of Solidarity with Jock Palfreeman on 22nd-28th April, and use your creativity and imagination to express solidarity.

Brighton Anarchist Black Cross
http://www.brightonabc.org.uk

International Week of Solidarity with Jock Palfreeman – 22nd-28th April

Jock Palfreeman is an Australian who, on the 27th December 2007, on a night out in Sofia, Bulgaria; had the courage to stand up against a group of fascist hooligans. Witnessing the fascists chasing and attacking two young Roma boys, Jock ran to the boys’ aid. He did his best to keep the fascists at bay but they ended up turning on and attacking him. Left with nowhere to run, Jock had no choice but to defend himself. Andrey Monov, one of the racist gang, was stabbed and later died. Another, Anton Zahariev was injured. The Roma boys ran away. Jock has since been tried and sentenced for murder and attempted murder. He was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and has been given a fine running into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Andrey Monovs father is well known in Bulgaria and at his funeral there were a mixture of judges, police and politicians. Jock’s trial was (not surprisingly) a complete sham – yet another example of corruption, secret handshakes in the judicial system and media bias. The prosecutions case was built on the witness statements made by the other racists that were part of the attacking group, all claiming that Jock randomly attacked and chased them, with the intent of killing somebody. Key people and possible witnesses for Jocks defence were never interviewed by police and CCTV footage from the scene miraculously went missing. Many of the statements made at the time were different to the statements submitted to the court by the prosecution., while Jocks statement has remained consistent from the night in question.

Solidarity demands from Jock Palfreeman

G’day mates! 27/01/12

For those of you who can make it, 15th March, Bulgarian Embassy, 11am-2pm, London.

Dear Comrades at ABC Brizzle,

As of around August 2011 I have been convicted without right of appeal in the highest court of Bulgaria. I was left with a 20 year sentence in maximum security prison. However, what did change in the court’s decision was that unlike the first court’s verdict, the court of appeal ruled that there were Roma present and there was a “physical fight between the Roma and the group of boys”. Seeing as the roma were 2 and the group of boys were 15 the use of the word “fight” is being stretched. The neo-nazis from South Division Levski Ultras have denied that there was a “fight” with Roma and even deny that Roma were there at all. Yet the appeal court although contradicting the nweo-nazis on this point went on to claim that the statements from the neo-nazis were truthful. Strangely, the crux of the prosecutor’s arguments was that there was no fight betwen the neop-nazis and the roma and there weren’t even Roma there, hence the accusation against me that I attacked them without cause. This was also the excuse given by the investigator and prosecutor for not bringing the Roma to court as witnesses. Now however the court has ruled that Roma were there and that yes there was a physical fight between the roma and the neo-nazis, but the court stops short at discreditting the neo-nazis as witnesses and made no attempt to find these “new” witnesses. Until today the only evidence used to proseucte me were the statements from the neo-nazis themselves. There is no other collaborating evidence or witnesses to the indictment or court findings that I “for no reason attacked 15 men with the intent to kill them.”

I have not changed my explanation of events from the beginning, and they remain the same after 4 years of being kidnapped by the Bulgarian state, that is that I witnessed the 15 neo-nazis all attack 2 Roma due to the colour of their skin, I intervened to defend the 2 Roma, the 15 neo-nazis then attacked me and I defended myself.

For these reasons and many more we are trying to revitalise the solidarity movement with my case and all the connotations that my case involves ie. racismn, violent neo-nazi gangs and their mates who defend them in the corrupt police, corrupt courts and the corrupt prisons system. The neo-nazis wouldn’t be able to attack people on the streets if it wasn;t for the protection offered them by the police and courts. It’s telling when hundereds of the state’s agents are needed to stop me, a lone individual. however, against their hundreds I have mortality, I am right and they are in the wrong and this is why it takes so many of them.

I am putting out a call to action to all those opposed to racism both on the street and in it’s institutionalized form of fascism. This March 2012 organise yourselves to the Bulgarian embassies or consuls in your cities. Let the Bulgarian state know that the matter is yet settled and that you don’t recognise the court’s decision to incarcerate me and protect the racists.

I am also trying to transfer to Australia so as be closer to my family and to escape the persecution against me by the prisons administration at the behest of those connected with my case, yet the Head Prosecutor-Boris Velchev and his lap dog prosecutor Krassimira Velcheva have alread tried to coerce me into retracting my transfer request. I refused to retract my request and as such the Prosecutor’s Office of Bulgaria is refusing to answer my rquests based on Bulgarian laws to transfer to Australia.

March 2012 solidarity demands are:
-Jock’s case is re-opened due to missing evidence primarily the two Roma witnesses/victims
-The neo-nazis are punished for their past race hate crimes and prevented from committing more
-Jock is allowed to transfer to Australia and all foreigners who wish to transfer to their countries

Letters of demand can be sent to the following relevant addresses:

-Head prosecutor of Bulgaria, Boris Velchv, No.2 Vitosha Boulevard, Sfoai 1061 Bulgaria
-Directorate of International Legal Assistance and European Integration, Krassimira Velcheva No.2 Vitosha Boulevard, Sofia 1061 Bulgaria
-Minister for Justice, Diana Kovacheva, No.1 Slavanska Street, Sofia 1040, Bulgaria
-Prime Minister if Bulgaria, Boiko Borrisov, No.2 Dondukov street, Sofia 1123, Bulgaria
-President of Bulgaria, Rosen Plevneviev, No.2 Slavanska street, Sofia 1040 Bulgaria
-Ministry of Foreign Affairs, No.29 “6th September” street, Sofia 1000 Bulgaria

Solidarity to all my comrades both outside and inside!

Jock Palfreeman

March 15th Solidarity Demo for Jock Palfreeman

Jock Palfreeman Solidarity Demo

photo from a solidarity demo in Moscow

Thursday 15th March 2012. 11 am

Demonstrate outside the Bulgarian Embassy in solidarity with Jock Palfreeman the young Australian man who was set up by the Bulgarian police and criminal justice system after he stepped in to stop an attack on a young Roma in December 2007. Jock Palfreeman was sentenced in December 2007 to 20 years in Bulgaria’s notorious Sofia Central Prison.

See the Free Jock website for in-depth information and analysis about Jock Palfreeman’s trial and imprisonment.

11 a.m. Bulgaria Embassy. 186-188 Queen’s Gate. London. SW7 5HL

Watch the One Night in Sofia documentary for interviews with Jock Palfreeman, his family and supporters.

Check the 5 minute interview with Professor Dave Barclay, forensics expert.

Jock Palfreeman Solidarity Demo. Thursday 15th March. 11am. Bulgarian Embassy – LONDON.

Jock Palfreeman Solidarity Demo. Thursday 15th March 2012. 11 am. London

Demonstrate outside the Bulgarian Embassy in solidarity with Jock Palfreeman the young Australian man who was set up by the Bulgarian police and criminal justice system after he stepped in to stop an attack on a young Roma in December 2007. Jock Palfreeman was sentenced in December 2007 to 20 years in Bulgaria’s notorious Sofia Central Prison.
See the Free Jock website for in-depth information and analysis about Jock Palfreeman’s trial and imprisonment.
Watch the One Night in Sofia documentary for interviews with Jock Palfreeman, his family and supporters.
Check the 5 minute interview with Professor Dave Barclay, forensics expert.

11 a.m. Bulgaria Embassy.
186-188 Queen’s Gate.
London.
SW7 5HL

googlemap of bulgarian embassy