Bulgaria offers hope to Michael Shields

Jan 11 2008 Greg O'Keeffe

THE case against jailed Liverpool fan Michael Shields could be reopened in Bulgaria, campaigners said today.

Lawyers acting on behalf of the 21-year-old are preparing a dossier of new evidence, which the Bulgarian government has not ruled out investigating.

The news comes after Bulgaria’s president Georgi Parvanov told British MEP Arlene McCarthy in a meeting yesterday that he would not pardon the student from Edge Hill.

But today, Mrs McCarthy said the president also told her that the case can be reopened in Bulgaria if they are presented with “sufficient new evidence”.

The dossier will include signed statements confirming Michael did not attack barman Martin Georgiev, the results of a lie-detector test which Michael passed, and the testimony of two men present when Mr Georgiev was attacked.

Also included are details of an eye-witness from Liverpool, who is willing to fly to Bulgaria and testify that Michael is not guilty.

Mrs McCarthy said: “I was given full assurance by the president’s legal advisers on the procedure for reopening the case, which I will discuss with Michael’s family and lawyer.

“The legal advisers pointed out that we may prefer the chance to get the case re-opened, because if they had pardoned Michael, he still would have been thought to be guilty.

“Now we have the chance to properly clear his name and we will go about it vigorously. I made it very clear to President Parvanov that this case is not going to go away.”

Mrs McCarthy also asked the Bulgarian president why DNA and forensic evidence was not used by the prosecution against Michael, and why Bulgarian police allowed another Liverpool man accused of attacking Mr Georgiev to return home.

Liverpool city Labour leader Joe Anderson, a spokesman for the Shields family, said the outcome of the meeting was as they expected.

He said: “The president confirmed what we always knew, which was that the judicial result as it is in Bulgaria will stand for the time being.

“However, we do have hope, in that he reiterated the fact that a mechanism does exist for Michael to be pardoned under British law, and he agreed to look at our evidence.”

Michael, accused of attacking Mr Georgiev after the 2005 Champions League final, was transferred to Britain in November 2006 to serve the remainder of his 10-year sentence.

The campaign has since focused its attention on winning over the British government, in a bid to have the conviction pardoned in this country at least.

Buoyed by November’s successful lie detector test result, the group plans to meet justice secretary Jack Straw in the next few weeks.

Michael’s MP Louise Ellman, who is fronting the campaign at Westminster, said: “We are still seeking foreign office support to ask for a pardon.”