'All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others' - George Orwell, "Animal Farm" The above Orwellian quote is an indictment on the hypocrisy of governments that proclaim the absolute equality of their citizens but give power and privileges to a small elite. The transparency and fairness of a country's legal system is one way of measuring the level of westernisation achieved by its social and political establishment. Take the Borilski case. Martin Borilski was a young 24 year old Bulgarian fourth year law student in Paris. In July 2000 he was murdered after being stabbed 93 times by two Bulgarians that managed to flee France. Despite the damning forensic evidence gathered by the French police and submitted to the Bulgarian court, the alleged Bulgarian murderers were acquitted by the Bulgarian legal system. As it turns out, one of the two Bulgarian defendants is none other than the son of a former senior official of the Bulgarian department of education. Had the criminal proceedings been heard in a French court (or in the court of any other EU member country) the charges would mostly likely have led to a guilty verdict. The result of the Bulgarian trial is a denial of justice in favour of the politically influential elite in Bulgaria. Apparently not all are equal before the law in Bulgaria. In 2008 the Economist wrote of a highly critical EU Commission report on the Bulgarian justice system. Not one of dozens of gangland killings since 2001 has been solved; nor has any senior official been successfully prosecuted. The recent kidnapping of the president of a leading football club and then his wife have highlighted Bulgaria's lawlessness and the apparent helplessness of the authorities. The Palfreeman case addressed in this video is another example of hypocrisy in Bulgaria gone out of control. It is not disputed that the actions of the 21 year old Jock Palfreeman had a causal effect on the death of the 20 year old Bulgarian law student Andrei Monov. What is disturbing is the way in which the Bulgarian establishment and the authorities managed the affair. From the outset the Bulgarian media demonised the young Australian as a trained killer out to indulge in a killing spree in Bulgaria. The manipulation and tampering of witness statements and evidence by the Bulgarian authorities is not conducive to a fair trial, nor is the interference by the Bulgarian political establishment in the legal outcome of these criminal proceedings The 20 year old victim Andrei Monov is the son of the famous Bulgarian psychologist Hristo Monov. As with the Borilski case, the Palfreeman case demonstrates that the Bulgarian courts prioritise the interests of the Bulgarian social and political elite rather than the pursuit of justice. When approached by the crew of this Australian documentary video, Hristo Monov refused to be interviewed, claiming that he would "not speak to the media from a country that created such a monster." While Hristo Monov's anger at the defendant is understandable, the blatant anti-western sentiment is typical of most members of the Bulgarian ex-communist establishment. Some old cold war habits in Bulgarian society die hard. Hence the anti-western subtext in the comments of the Bulgarian chattering classes that are decrying Palfreeman supposedly for his alleged crime - but in reality, over his 'western' origin. So is the Palfreeman case really about the pursuit of justice over an alleged murder of a Bulgarian national by a western tourist? Or is Palfreeman the focus of Bulgarian condemnation of the western European system that has frequently criticised Bulgaria over corruption, to the point where the EU has now frozen billion of dollars of funding to Bulgaria? In the Palfreeman case it is expected that the justice system in Bulgaria will give way to the bloodlust of nationalist mob rule in Bulgaria that is fuelled by traditional anti-western sentiment. This will lead to legitimate questions over whether Bulgaria is truly ready to be part of the EU community. Did the West make an error of judgment by concluding that Bulgaria will adapt to western cultural values upon membership of the EU? Time will tell.

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