mr president i wish to inform parliament that last week the uk justice minister gave michael shields my constituent a pardon and he was freed from prison having served four and a half years for a crime he did not commit
michael was given a pardon on the basis of evidence clearly showing that he was morally and technically innocent of the crime
he was arrested charged and convicted of a brutal attack on martin georgiev a bulgarian waiter in two thousand and five in less than eight weeks despite the lack of forensic evidence a flawed identification process and a signed confession to the attack by another man graham sankey
today i want to thank presidents borrell and pöttering and parliament's committee on petitions for supporting michael's campaign for justice
but this is not the end of the process and i ask the president and the committee on petitions to continue to support michael's campaign for justice and to intervene with the bulgarian authorities immediately to review the dossier of evidence
this is vital if we are to give every one of our citizens trust and confidence in judicial and police cooperation in europe
