Canadian released from jail in Bulgaria, but not free, lawyer says

By: Allison Jones, THE CANADIAN PRESS TORONTO - A Canadian businessman jailed in Bulgaria for 13 years may have been released from custody, but that doesn't mean a "lawless and corrupt" government will allow Michael Kapoustin to be free, his lawyer said Thursday. "He's been so abused that we don't know what to believe anymore," Dean Peroff said. "All we know is that until he's on Canadian soil, he's not safe and he's not free." Kapoustin, from the Penticton, B.C., area, went to Bulgaria with an entrepreneurial spirit after the fall of communism, but soon after found himself facing allegations of money laundering and embezzlement. He was handed a 17-year sentence in 1995 and, according to his lawyer, inexplicably released Thursday. He spent 10 years in a maximum security prison, then was transferred to another prison, then... [read full story]