Sydney man Jock Palfreeman has enjoyed a beer with his supporters after being released from a Bulgarian immigration detention this week, but his father is concerned his son will never return home after a court unexpectedly granted him parole last month.
Simon Palfreeman said it would be "magical" to have his son home for Christmas but he's worried the "corrupt process" that saw him jailed may mean he'll never return.
Jock Palfreeman speaks to the media as he leaves an immigration detention centre in Busmantsi, Bulgaria, on Tuesday.Credit: AP
Mr Palfreeman was released on Tuesday after being "unlawfully" kept in a detention centre in Sofia - almost a month after three court judges granted him parole having served 11 years of a 20-year murder sentence.
"It's incredibly worrying that Jock could get so close within the legal system of Bulgaria to the point where we're actually looking at how to get him home and then to be stopped at the last minute by the same corrupt process that saw him jailed for 20 years in the first place," Mr Palfreeman's father, a Newcastle-based pathologist told AAP. "Having him home for Christmas would be a great thing for him, but also a magical moment for his extended family.
"I've got to the stage now where until he's back on Australian soil, I really do not trust that he will be let out of Bulgaria."
School friend Karl Ferguson, who was in contact with Mr Palfreeman on Thursday, said for the first time in "a long while" his friend has been able to "kick his feet up".
"It was the most positive he's seemed in this whole time," he said. "He's had a beer, he's had a cider ... he's in good spirits".
He was kept in the immigration centre following an appeal from the country's top prosecutor on his release, however, authorities confiscated his passport. The court has two months to make a decision on the appeal.
Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne said the government was concerned "if non-legal issues were seen to have an influence on the process".
"We have called and continued to call for the Bulgarian authorities to allow Mr Palfreeman to travel to Australia given his paroled status," Senator Payne told Parliament.
Mr Palfreeman's Bulgarian lawyer Kalin Angelov said it would be a "huge catastrophe" if he's returned to jail.
"We're in some very strange legal territory and nothing is following the rules," he told AAP.
Jock Palfreeman left the detention centre on Tuesday. Credit: AP
Speaking outside the immigration detention centre, Mr Palfreeman said he wouldn't try to leave Bulgaria.
"I am not afraid because I believe that the Bulgarian people will protect me like they have done over the past 12 years," he said. "Bulgarians have always helped me, not Australians."
Mr Palfreeman was unexpectedly granted parole late September after serving over a decade for the murder of Bulgarian student Andrei Monov during a 2007 brawl. The 32-year-old has always maintained his innocence.
Mr Palfreeman now must remain in Sofia and report to local police weekly, immigration department director Nikola Nikolov said.
Mr Ferguson said it is unclear whether Mr Palfreeman plans to return to Australia long-term.
with AAP