UK Ambassador to Bulgaria: Michael Shields' Pardon is Final

The British Ambassador to Bulgaria, Steve Williams, informed Tuesday new evidence had proven Michael Shield's innocence. Photo by UK Embassy Sofia

The British Ambassador to Bulgaria, Steve Williams, confirmed he had supplied Bulgarian authorities with new evidence about Michael Shields' innocence.

The news was reported Thursday by Darik radio.

On September 9, Michael Shields was pardoned by the UK Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, on the grounds of the confession made by another Liverpool fan who said he had committed the crime.

In the summer of 2005, the victim, Martin Georgiev, had a rock dropped on his head in Varna, Bulgaria, where Shields, like a number of Liverpool fans, had broken up the journey home from Istanbul.

Shields, then 18, was found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison, which was reduced to 10 years on appeal.

He had been serving the remainder of his sentence in Thorn Cross Young Offenders Institute in Appleton Thorn, Warrington.

The Ambassador said the new evidence has been revealed during an August 28 meeting between Straw and Shields's family, which had been enough to convince the UK Justice Secretary that Michael was both, technically and morally, innocent.

Mr. Williams informed he had submitted all of the new information with the Bulgarian Justice Ministry on September 9, but declined to offer any details basing it on the assertion that the work on the documents had been done through the regular channels of legal cooperation.
The Ambassador further pointed out the UK authorities were ready to assist their Bulgarian colleagues by any and all possible means.

When asked about Shields' statements that Bulgaria owed him an apology, Mr. Williams said he believed the main focus should be obtaining justice for everyone involved, including Martin Georgiev, so the priority now would be the reassessment of the new evidence by the Bulgarian authorities.

The Ambassador firmly denied seeing any similarities between Shields' case and the one of the Bulgarian medics jailed in Libya and rejected speculations that the pardon was a political move on Straw's part in the eve of the British elections.

Mr. Williams reiterated that Michael Shields was pardoned and a free man and there wasn't any question he was going to be jailed again.

Regarding Graham Sankey, the man who confessed of the crime, but remains at large, the Ambassador said the British authorities would collaborate with the Bulgarian ones, if, upon examining the new evidence, they decide to reopen the case.

 

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