Updated September 26, 2019 21:53:32

The parents of an Australian man detained in Bulgaria are calling on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to intervene and help secure his release.

"I think what's been happening in Bulgaria is that the whole thing has become very political," Jock Palfreeman's father Simon Palfreeman told 7.30.

"It does really require someone like our Prime Minister Scott Morrison to actually speak out on behalf of Jock, and even pick up the phone and maybe have a talk to [Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko] Borissov."

Jock Palfreeman, 32, was last week released on parole after spending 11 years in prison for murder in Bulgaria.

Photo: Jock Palfreeman, pictured in 2015, is curently being held in a detention centre. (Supplied: Dobrin Kashavelov)

He was sentenced to 20 years over the stabbing death of local law student Andrei Monov in Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, in 2007.

The Australian argued he ran to the assistance of a Roma, or Gypsy, being attacked by a group of young men and had to act in self-defence when the men turned on him.

The Australian being held in a Sofia immigration detention facility says the Bulgarian authorities keeping him locked up after he won a parole appeal last week are using his case to further their own political agenda.

Since being released on parole he has been held in Busmantsi Detention Centre.

But the news of his release has lead to public anger in Bulgaria, with Prosecutor-General Sotir Tsatsarov filing a request with the country's highest court, the Supreme Court of Cassation, to have Palfreeman's parole revoked and his case reopened.

Andrei Monov's father, a former politician, announced he would seek to lodge an application to bar Palfreeman from leaving the country until the Australian pays compensation to the Monov family, as ordered by the court.

Simon Palfreeman told 7.30 he had not had much sleep "for the last four or five nights".

"It is actually very very stressful having Jock's life in so many other hands."

Photo: Simon and Helen Palfreeman say they want more political support for their son. (ABC News: Jerry Rickard)

He said that while he believes the consular assistance has been "wonderful", he feels his son has not received enough diplomatic and political support.

The Department of Foreign Affairs told 7.30 in a statement that "Australia has provided everything required to date to assist Mr Palfreeman in an expeditious departure from Bulgaria, when authorities allow".

"Australian officials have been closely engaging with the Bulgarian Government."

The statement said Foreign Minister Marise Payne was scheduled to meet with her Bulgarian counterpart on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly this week.

Topics: law-crime-and-justice, international-law, newcastle-2300, bulgaria, australia

First posted September 26, 2019 21:43:52