Bulgaria Gives up Taking Michael Shields to Court Again

Michael Shields has repeatedly stated that he wants to clear his name in Bulgaria. File photo

Bulgarian prosecutors have confirmed expectations that they do not plan to resume the trial against Liverpool fan Michael Shields, who was sentenced here to ten years in jail for an attack on a barman, but was recently pardoned by his home country.

"Varna district prosecutor's office believes there are no grounds for resuming the trial against Michael Shields," its spokesman Radoslav Lazarov announced, as cited by Sega daily.

Varna prosecutors say the new evidence, which Britain claimed had emerged acquitting Michael Shields, has already been taken into account in court. The prosecutors are apparently referring to the statements of fellow Liverpool fan Graham Sankey, who allegedly confessed to attacking Martin Georgiev, but then withdrew his admission.

Michael Shields has repeatedly stated that he wants to clear his name in Bulgaria. During the trial he insisted he was asleep in bed when a concrete slab was dropped on Martin Georgiev's head in a Bulgarian pub.

Another Liverpool fan Graham Sankey, then 20, later confessed to the crime but refused to come back to Bulgaria and give evidence in person. The Bulgarian authorities then refused to consider the evidence.

Sankey subsequently retracted his confession and his solicitor said his client was involved in a different fight.

It is that confession which appears to have persuaded UK Justice Secretary Jack Straw to grant the pardon, although, in an extraordinarily detailed statement issued by the Ministry of Justice on the day of the release he did not mention Sankey by name.

Instead he explained that he had initially felt bound to respect the verdict of the Bulgarian court until being advised after a judicial review this year that it was within his power to grant a pardon.

Bulgaria's senior prosecutor Boris Velchev has not ruled out the launch of a new trial against Michael Shields, given that new evidence surfaces, but Varna prosecutors clearly do not share this stand. Should they go for a renewal of the trial, the Supreme Cassation Court will have the final say.

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