The Decade of Trials and of Tears and Blood

1996 to 2006

Germany - Bulgaria - Canada

These are the pictures of a whose changing face tells the story. The pictures are
part of Bulgaria's modern history. They speak for themselves and little explanation
is needed. From Feb. 1996 to Jan. 2006 Michael had only God to hold him and faith
to keep whole. His mother would die, some close friends and relatives would also
perish. His small son would nearly die, and Michael would himself see death and
beyond. He would face his toughest challenges without the comfort of a family or a
single material possession. Few men manage to with dignity survive 13 years of
prison, fewer still never yield to the system and almost none continue to publicly
challenge a system known for its inhumanity and brutally. No one in Bulgarian or
Canadian history has so doggedly refused to accept the status quo and to fight for
change. Michael did and as you will see later on he is still fight for change.

The following pictures are the public images of a David and Goliath struggle. The
crowds are massive, the security never seen before and the media everywhere.
Michael removes his first lawyers and decided to handle his own defense. He has
more than 8 interpreters that he exhaust daily. Efforts by Trail Judge Mitkova to
force lawyers on him all fail. Michael learns the system and the law and with
elegance he deftly out maneuvers the court and the prosecutor. He twice appears
on the covers of profession legal journals. is self taught legal skills become almost
legendary among Bulgaria's civil and criminal court trial judges. Some hate him,
others admire him everyone will eventually respect his unshakable determination,
calm and good humor.
These are the posters and the clips from a living movie. The story of a trial that
takes 7 years and 7 months and only ends after Michael decides to take a deal
offered by Bulgaria's government to the government of Canada "Tell Kapoustin to
stop, withdraw his appeals and lawsuits against the Bulgarian state and we will let
Canada have him". The year was 2002. IN 2004 the Government of Bulgaria proved
it could not be trusted. The government of Bulgaria immediately changed its mind
one Michael had done all that was asked of him. It would be 6 years and 6 months
more before Michael finally prevails.

Figure 1
A half dozen guards always surround
Michael during the years of pre-trial bail
hearings.

Michael would spend from February 1996 to

December 1998 in solitary confinement.
Sometimes months would pass with his
seeing anyone except the guards bringing
him food. And those who would beat him
prior or after an interrogation.
 Figure 2 People would
gather by the 100's waiting
to catch a glimpse or yell
and obscenity at the
Pharaoh.

Figure 3 MIchael consults Figure 4 Michael was un-

Attorney and friend Fanny
Arunova. Serious health
issues would result in her
withdrawing from Miichael's
team. It would be Attorney
Anatol Lukanov that would
stay by Michael's side to the
bitter end.
phased. He calmly walked
past the crowds and smiled
at photographers as he took
off his coat and prepared his
defense. He always smiled
and looked everyone in the
eye.

Figure 5 Michael and Anatol consulting and then together on the last
day of the first trial. The two men, one an attorney the other self
taught, had destroyed the prosecution witness and the original
charges. The Court helps the prosecution by unlawfull permitting
proscutors to change the accusations against Michael.

Figure 6 Michael is led away

after the sentence.
 23 Years of Prison Without Parole

The sentence pleased a corrupt government and a nation hungry to blame a

foreigner for the crimes of others. The Canada's consul general Heather Brooks
cried as she handed a red rose to Michael. Friends and translators were
devastated. change. The media expected a man whose knees would quake and who
would collapse or scream in anger. Instead Michael held his ground, looked at
everyone with determination and without a blink of an eye or a quiver in his voice
told journalists that "the verdict is flawed, it won't stand".

Michael appealed insisting the verdict was unlawful. The prosecutor protested
insisting the sentence was not severe enough. The Appeal court acquitted Michael
completely but did not release him, instead it made a new charge and sentenced
him to 9 years. Michael had already served 7 years. Michael appealed, he was
innocent. The prosecutor protested saying the appeals court count not lawfully
bring a new charge. The Bulgarian Supreme court agreed and set aside the appeal
verdict as unlawful. The appeal court had to either confirm the 23 years sentence or
let Michael go. So there was a second trial.

Michael was again acquitted. The appeal court agreeing that the charges against
him were impossible and there was no evidence of any fraud. But the Appeal again
unlawfully entered a new criminal accusation against Michael and sentenced him to
17 years with possibility of early released.

Michael would appeal again. But then his family's pain, Canada's bad advice and a
corrupt Bulgarian government would all work against him.
 Figure 7

Mr. Jason Kenny M.P. and

Canadian Special Envoy to
Bulgaria and the Council of
Europe in the Kapoustin case.

The Beginning of the End

A number of minor legal victories, the support of a E.U. deputy commissioner

Bridget Czarnota and U.S. Senator and former presidential candidate John Kerry, a
Canadian election and new Prime Minster who not only spoke about his Faith but
also acted on it and on his belief in God, a dedicated wife and friend Tracy, a new
Canadian Attorney Dean Peroff, a Member of Canada's Parliament, a Minster and
Special Envoy to Bulgaria Jason Kenney and two Angels one named Noreen and the
other Anita were the signs and the massagers' that the end was near. Each of more
than a dozen impossible events are about to take place, miracles that would join
together to finally end Michael's bondage.
 Figure 8 Michael visiting the
home of his friend and
prison pastor Ivodor
Kovachev

Figure 9 Sonja, Michael and

Frank in downtown Sofia.
The first family in 10 years.

Figure 10 Michael cleaning

snow from a friend's car. HIs
first car ride in 11 years.

Figure 11 Michael with

Canadian attorney Dean
Peroff who immediately flew
to Sofia to meet his new Figure 12 Michael with his
client. sister and reading the
document releasing him for
5 days.

Figure 13

Michael was the first foreign national in Bulgarian history to secure an unsupervised
leave from prison. . Everyone, to the last, had told Michael his request for a leave was
impossible. Prisoners. family members and the Government of Canada were shocked
when the impossible happened January 2nd 2006 when the Government of Bulgaria
and Prosecutor's office agreed to allow Michael to leave prison for 5 days to visit his
sister Sonja and her husband Frank in Sofia. Michael would have a second leave later
in March of 2007 and when he would meet his son Nicholas and wife Tracy for the
first time in 11 years. Thanks to Michael's legal work other foreign prisoners also were
allowed leaves, received better food, were moved to new cells and eventually to open
prisons. In October 2006 Michael would succeed in securing a judicial reviews of the
criminal sentences of 26 foreign nationals. In December those men would be
released. Michael should also have been released. Instead he was punished and
remained in prison another 16 months.
 Figure 14 Michael giving a secret TV
interview to Canadian TV from inside a
refugee detention center. Two days later he
was released to the custody of Canada's
Ambassador.

The End and a New Beginning

On June 29th, 2008 a Bulgarian criminal court suspended the balance of Michael's
sentence. It was 12 years, 6 months and 21 days to the day of his arrest. Michael
was re-arrested immediately on leaving prison. This time as an "illegal foreign
national". He would spend one week at the infamous Ministry for Interior "Drusba"
refugee detention center. Significant pressure from the governments of Canada,
the U.S.A. and the E.U. resulted with Michael being released on July 4th 2008. He
would be placed under house arrest and could not leave Bulgaria before paying a
bribe of 17,000 to a relative of the Sofia prosecutors Office and a member of
Bulgarian parliament. On July 7th 2008 the money was paid, that same day he was
place on a plane and on his way to Canada.
 Figure 15 Michael meets
his son at the airport in Figure 16 The author on the left, Michael
Vancouver British and his 86 year old father on the right.
Columbia Canada.

Figure 17 Michael attends a meeting with members of Canada's parliament,

businessmen, lawyers and academics. The group is organized around Michael. Its goal,
the goal is to create law so what happened to Michael never happens again.

Michael is fighting for the rights of all foreigners when traveling and did so right from
the moment he returned to Canada to the release of this book

His story and his connection to Bulgaria are only beginning, not ending.

The Beginning of Universal Legal Aid and the keeping a promise.