The Freedom Flotilla

Or Angela Merkel?

THE GREEK PEOPLE

Keith McHenry

Vittorio Arrigoni, nonviolent resistance hero from Italy, living in Palestine, working for the Palestinian cause, and writing about Palestinian suffering for news and net outlets in Italy.  Recently murdered by unknown assailants. (See AlJazeera English film made shortly before his death.)  His motto:  “Stay human!”

I nominate Jock Palfreeman an Australian traveller who went to the aid of two Roma (Gypsies) in Sofia, Bulgaria who were being beaten and having their faces stomped on by a gang of sixteen Bulgarian men. On his own he confronted an armed, violent racist mob who then turned on him, even after he held the knife he was carrying above his head to show them he was armed, they pursued him down the street, kicked him, beat him and threw concrete blocks at his head. At one point he was knocked to the ground but was able to get up and if he hadn’t, they would have killed him.  In the melee one of the mob a law student, Andrei Monov, was stabbed and later died and another of the mob was wounded. Palfreeman acted solely in defence of his life but the father of the dead man, Hristo Monov, went to war with Palfreeman and he was connected to rich and powerful people as well as being a ‘famous psychologist’ in Bulgaria.

The upshot is, for going to the aid of the Gypsies (two young homeless men) and defending himself from a racist gang he is now serving 20 years in Sofia prison on a charge of murder with hooliganism after the psychologist essentially rigged the trial by colluding with the prosecution to destroy CCTV footage showing what happened to the Roma and Palfreeman’s intervention and other things that proved Palfreeman’s claim of self defense. The police at the scene made written statements but when they turned up in court they made completely different statements and when the defence wanted to have the original statements read out in court Hristo Monov and the prosecution refused to allow it. The Roma were ‘disappeared’, Hristo Monov and the prosecution even claimed they had never existed so, of course, they were never interviewed or allowed to testify in court. The British friends who were with Palfreeman and witnessed the whole incident were also not interviewed and never allowed to testify. I believe Palfreeman did a courageous and moral thing, standing up for decency and civilized values against an armed, violent racist mob and his reward for doing the right thing has so far been twenty years in jail. There are very few of us who would have his courage and put their own safety on the line for a despised minority. For the rich and powerful to have conspired, as they have, to lock him up instead of acquitting him on his plea of self-defence is unconscionable. He is my truthdigger of the week.

Once more with feeling:  Tim DeChristopher.