Australian Jock Palfreeman has been released from detention in Bulgaria nearly a month after being granted parole.

Palfreeman was released from Busmantsi Detention Centre in Sofia on Tuesday evening local time and told media that authorities have his passport and there is still a ban on him leaving the country.

A senior interior ministry official said Palfreeman had to stay in the country until the historic ban was lifted.

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"He will have to show up at an interior ministry office once a week until a ban to leave the country, issued back in 2011, is lifted," Nikolay Nikolov, the head of the Interior Ministry's migration unit, told reporters.

Palfreeman, 32, had served more than 11 years of a 20-year sentence for the December 2007 stabbing murder of 20-year-old student Andrei Monov, whose father is an influential former member of parliament.

Addressing the media today, Palfreeman said Bulgarian authorities confiscated his passport shortly before he was released.

"An hour before they told me they were releasing me, 40 police officers went through my cell," he said.

"They took my Australian passport. That was very strange. Some high ranking officer told me I had no right to a passport since I'm banned from leaving the country."

He said he did not know where he would stay, but that he was "happy" to be released after spending more than 11 years in jail and in detention.

"Of course I am happy. I am out of prison today, for the second time. I hope everything will be over quickly," he said.

Asked if he was afraid for his safety, Palfreeman said he trusted the Bulgarian people.

"I'm confident they'll keep me safe. They've kept me safe for 12 years," he said.

"A lot of people think I've received a lot of support from Australia during those 12 years [but] the truth is that the ones who have supported me during those 12 years have all been Bulgarian."

'They basically stole his passport'

Jock's father, Simon, said he had concerns for his son's safety.

"Certainly he's been released from the detention centre but then that's because of intense international pressure," he said.

"Before they let him go they raided his room and basically stole his passport.

"He's now in Bulgaria without identification or his passport.

"Given the hostile reaction from large segments in Bulgaria, I am now actually concerned for his safety as well."

Simon thanked the Federal Government for their support.

"They're in a very difficult position," he said.

"It's been a very frustrating time for them.

"I think the way the Bulgarian Government has treated our Government has been absolutely scandalous and insulting and I think our Government is actually doing as much as they can now."

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said she was pleased Palfreeman had been released from detention.

"I am concerned, however, that Mr Palfreeman continues to be denied the right to return to Australia, having being granted parole in September," she said in a statement.

"We call on the Bulgarian Government to ensure Mr Palfreeman receives due process, consistent with Bulgarian law."

Palfreeman has always maintained he had acted in self-defence, claiming he stabbed Mr Monov after he was attacked by him and a group of friends in Sofia's central square.

His lawyer recently released CCTV of the night of the incident in 2007, which Palfreeman said was evidence he was innocent of the murder charge of which he was convicted in 2009.

A composite image of CCTV stills from the night Jock Palfreeman stabbed a Bulgarian man in Sofia, 2007. ( Supplied )

The September 19 decision by the Court of Appeal to grant him parole sparked controversy in the Bulgarian capital, with politicians decrying the decision.

The case has dominated the local press, and far right rallies have been held calling for the appeals court judges to be sacked.

There is no legal mechanism by which Palfreeman should be detained.

Consular officials issued him with an emergency passport days after he got parole.

On October 7, the Supreme Court of Cassation heard a highly irregular appeal brought by Bulgaria's powerful prosecutor-general to have Palfreeman returned to jail and his case reopened.

The Supreme Court of Cassation is still yet to rule on the application.

ABC/wires