Bulgaria's chief prosecutor has asked the country's highest court to revoke the parole a lower court granted to Australian Jock Palfreeman who was convicted of fatally stabbing a Bulgarian student during a 2007 brawl.
Palfreeman had served 11 years of his 20-year prison sentence when a three-judge Court of Appeals panel unexpectedly ordered him freed on Thursday.
The 32-year-old left prison the same day but was transferred to an immigration detention facility to await a new passport from the nearest Australian embassy which is in Athens.
While there has been rejoicing in Australia, in Bulgaria, the news of his release has been met with outrage.
Prosecutor-General Sotir Tsatsarov on Tuesday petitioned Bulgaria's Supreme Court of Cassation to suspend Palfreeman's parole and review the panel's ruling.
Palfreeman's lawyer, Kalin Angelov, called the prosecutor's appeal "absurd", and advised Australian authorities to speed up the passport and put Palfreeman on a plane home.
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade would only say it is continuing to provide consular assistance to Palfreeman and his family.
File photo of Jock Palfreeman (C) as he arrived for his trial at Sofia City Court in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, December, 2009. Source: AAP
"Owing to our privacy obligations we will not provide further comment," a statement from DFAT said.
Palfreeman has consistently maintained he acted in self-defence when he intervened to prevent law student Andrei Monov, 23, and a group of friends from attacking two Roma, or gypsy, men.
Interior Minister Mladen Marinov on Sunday defended the decision to release Palfreeman.
"When there is deprivation of life, then there is no complete justice, there is no way to return things," Mr Marinov told Nova TV.
"The logic of the law is to find justice and make it quick, have an effective sentence."
