{"id":1370,"date":"2008-09-30T01:10:32","date_gmt":"2008-09-29T15:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1370"},"modified":"2009-09-20T06:38:07","modified_gmt":"2009-09-19T20:38:07","slug":"jock-palfreeman-fascism-in-bulgaria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=1370","title":{"rendered":"Jock Palfreeman & Fascism in Bulgaria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine months ago, in Sofia, Bulgaria, a 21 year-old Australian named Jock Palfreeman was arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder, following an altercation between Jock and a small group of Bulgarians on the streets of the capital. Jock maintains that he is innocent, and that the death of 20-year-old student Andrei (Andrey) Monov<\/a>, and injury to Antoan Zahariev (19) — both of whom Jock admits he stabbed — were the result of acts of self-defence. According to Jock, on the night of December 28, upon leaving a bar, on Stambolijski Boulevard he witnessed a group of Bulgarian men beating a Gypsy (Roma), and intervened in order to end the assault. Subsequently, the group turned on him, and he drew his knife. In the ensuing melee, Jock stabbed the two men, one of whom later died.<\/p>\n

Jock’s court case commenced in May, and is continuing. The prosecution case appears to rest on the testimony of the dead man’s friends, as video footage of the confrontation has been lost. According to the prosecution, Jock attacked the group of young men without provocation — “police say… an unprovoked frenzied attack on a public street” — and probably while drunk or under the influence of (other) drugs. His defence, at this point, rests upon the testimony of other witnesses, who confirm the broad outlines of Jock’s account, and the existence of a Romany (which Andrei’s friends deny outright).<\/p>\n

Jock’s case is complicated by the existence of ultra-nationalist currents in Bulgaria, and the fact that the dead man, Andrei Monov, was acknowledged by his father, in court, as being a right-wing nationalist and as believing in ‘Bulgaria for the Bulgarians’. Secondly, and intimately tied to Bulgarian ultra-nationalism, is the existence of a strong current of anti-Roma feeling: according to this view, Roma are not Bulgarian, and do not belong in the country. Finally, Jock claims to have been assaulted by ‘nationalists’ in Bulgaria on a number of prior occasions, and that this was the reason for his carrying a knife.<\/p>\n

Please note that, contrary to Marnie O\u2019Neill’s claim (The Daily Telegraph<\/em>, January 20, 2008), this blog is not “run by Palfreeman\u2019s close friends”. In fact, this blog is “run” by one person; I have never met Jock; and I knew nothing of his existence until I read of his arrest in December, 2007. My interest in his case, therefore, derives from my more general interest in monitoring the activities of the far right, particularly, but not exclusively, within Australia.<\/p>\n