Liverpool Fans March in Support of Michael Shields

Hundreds of supporters of jailed football hooligan Michael Shields marched to Anfield Saturday to raise awareness of the campaign to free him.

The protest coincided with the Reds' league match against Blackburn Rovers, Justice Secretary's Jack Straw's home team.

March organiser, Labour councillor Joe Anderson, said it showed how much support there was for Shields, the BBC reported.

Shields, 22, was transferred to the UK in 2006 after his 15-year sentence for attempted murder was reduced on appeal.

Merseyside Police said about 150 to 200 people had turned up for the march which started from St George's Hall heading to the Liverpool football supporters club in Anfield.

Anderson said others had joined the march along the route and put the figure at about 400.

Shields's supporters had their hopes of an early release raised when the High Court ruled last year that Straw had the power to order his release.

Straw can issue a pardon but has asked Merseyside Police to examine the facts of his conviction in Bulgaria.

Merseyside Police are speaking to UK-based witnesses and studying new evidence which came to light after Shields was jailed.

Barman Martin Georgiev had a paving slab dropped on his head in Varna in May 2005, injuring him seriously.

Shields had been watching Liverpool's Champions League final win against AC Milan on television at the resort, along with other supporters.

He was found guilty of attempted murder in a trial in Bulgaria after the incident but has always maintained his innocence.

At one point another Liverpool fan, who was staying in the same hotel, signed a confession admitting he carried out the attack, but he later retracted it.

Meanwhile, commemorations to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough stadium tragedy took place Saturday with a minute's silence before Liverpool's match against Blackburn.

Before the kickoff at Anfield, Blackburn's former Liverpool player, Stephen Warnock, carried a wreath on to the pitch and laid it in front of the Kop.

The number 96 picked out in the floral tribute, marking the number of Liverpool fans crushed to death on April 15, 1989 in a fenced-in standing area of the Sheffield stadium. Liverpool was playing Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup semi-finals.