Jock Palfreeman is awaiting a new passport so he can return home to Australia from Bulgaria, where he is being held in immigration detention, the country's interior minister says.
Palfreeman, 32, was granted parole last week after serving 11 years of a 20-year sentence for fatally stabbing Bulgarian law student Andrei Monov, 23, during a brawl in the capital Sofia in 2007.
While there has been rejoicing in Australia, in Bulgaria, the news of his release has been met with outrage.
Interior Minister Mladen Marinov on Sunday night said Palfreeman would leave Bulgaria as soon as he gets his passport.
The minister defended the court's 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."
Palfreeman has consistently maintained he acted in self-defence that night after intervening to prevent Mr Monov and a group of friends from attacking two Roma, or gypsy, men.
Australian Associated Press
