Canadian in refugee centre seeks freedom

By CHRISTINA SPENCER, NATIONAL BUREAU Michael Kapoustin should have been looking forward to his freedom after 12 years in a Bulgarian jail. Instead, he's been tossed into a "terrible" high-security detention facility for refugees outside the capital of Sofia. "There was an attempted suicide the first day I arrived here," he said in a telephone interview from the centre yesterday. "Self-mutilation is routine -- people are literally mutilating themselves in an attempt to draw attention to their plight." Kapoustin, a 56-year-old Canadian businessman, received what should have been good news late last week: A Bulgarian judge had "suspended" the remainder of a 17-year sentence he was serving on a lone count of embezzlement. Legally, he says, suspension means he doesn't have to spend more time in jail. Instead, Kapoustin was... [read full story]