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Bulgaria to Request Medics' Transfer
SOFIA, Bulgaria
Last Updated:July 18. 2007 10:46AM
Published: July 18. 2007 10:46AM
Bulgaria pressed Wednesday for the repatriation of five of its nurses and a Palestinian doctor jailed in Libya after their death sentences were commuted to life in prison.
"For us, the case will be closed only after the medics return to Bulgarian soil, and we are working for it to happen as soon as possible," Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev told reporters.
Prosecutor General Boris Velchev said an official transfer request would be sent to Tripoli later in the day.
Libya accused the six of deliberately infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV. The medics, jailed since 1999, deny infecting the children and say their confessions were extracted under torture. Their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment late Tuesday.
Experts and outside scientific reports said the children were contaminated by unhygienic conditions at a hospital in the northeastern coastal city of Benghazi. Fifty of the infected children died.
Velchev said the request to Tripoli was based on a 1984 agreement between the two countries that would allow the medical workers to serve their sentences in Bulgaria. Last month, Bulgaria granted citizenship to the Palestinian doctor.
"It is possible that Libya will reject a transfer, but this agreement allows us to make a second request," Velchev said. He did not give a timeframe of when the medics might return home.
The medics' main Libyan defense lawyer, Osman al-Bizant, told broadcaster Al-Jazeera that their deportation depended on whether their punishment would be enforced in Bulgaria.
Another defense lawyer, Harry Haralampiev, said that under Bulgarian law, it was possible for the six to receive a presidential pardon. But President Georgi Parvanov refused to say if the issue was being considered, telling reporters that such discussions were "not helpful."
Tuesday's ruling came after the children's families each received $1 million, according to a victims' advocate, and agreed to drop their demand for executions.
Libya remains under intense international pressure to free the six, and Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam said Tripoli would consider their deportation to Bulgaria. He said negotiations would take place within "the legal framework and political context" between the two countries.
"In return (for a transfer), improving the conditions of the infected children and their families should be taken into account," Shalqam told The Associated Press.
Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin called the Supreme Judiciary Council's ruling "a huge step in the right direction."
Asked whether it was possible the medics would be pardoned after returning home, Kalfin said: "All judicial options are real."
The United States and European Union welcomed the commutation, which could remove an obstacle toward rebuilding ties with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime.
Portugal, which holds the EU's presidency, said it hoped the medics would return to Bulgaria soon.
EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner was slated to visit Paris on Thursday to discuss the issue with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, said EU spokeswoman Christiane Hohmann.
In another sign that Libya was working to rebuild its international standing, Gadhafi invited French President Nicolas Sarkozy to visit, Elysee Palace spokesman David Martinon said. Sarkozy, who made freeing the medical workers a campaign promise before his May election, has been keen to help them. In a surprise visit last week, French first lady Cecilia Sarkozy met with Gadhafi, the nurses and young HIV-positive Libyans.
In a separate court case in Tripoli, the six medics were found not guilty Wednesday of defaming a police officer whom they had accused of torture when they gave testimony in their trial.
Libya's South Tripoli Court of First Instance did not explain the ruling. The nurses and the Palestinian doctor did not appear in court.
In May, the same court dropped similar charges that had been filed by two Libyans, police officer Jumaa al-Mishri and a doctor, Abdul-Majid al-Shoul, who demanded about $4 million in compensation.
Wednesday's case had been filed by police officer Saleem Ahmed Saleem, who claimed a similar amount in compensation. The medics had denied that they defamed anyone.
During their retrial last year in the HIV case, they said their confessions had been extracted under torture, and named al-Mishri, al-Shoul and Saleem as the culprits.
Bulgaria also seeks the return of Zdravko Georgiev, a husband of a jailed nurse and a co-defendant. He was released two years ago after serving his sentence, but was not allowed to leave Libya.
"Thank God the death sentences were dropped," Georgiev said in a radio interview from Tripoli.
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SOFIA, Bulgaria
Last Updated:July 18. 2007 10:46AM
Published: July 18. 2007 10:46AM
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From second left to right, Zorka Anachkova, the mother of Kristiana Valcheva, Rosen Markov, Cvetanka Siropolu, sister of Valentina Siropolu, Ivailo Nikolchovski, son of Snezhana Dimitrova, three of the five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya, stand next to the French's ambassador in Bulgaria Etienne Du Ponsen, right, during meeting inside of the French embassy in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, Tuesday, July, 17, 2007. Families of children infected with the HIV virus have begun to receive compensations ahead of a decision expected later Tuesday by Libya's top judicial body on the case of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor facing death sentences over the injections, a Libyan official said. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)
Bulgaria pressed Wednesday for the repatriation of five of its nurses and a Palestinian doctor jailed in Libya after their death sentences were commuted to life in prison.
"For us, the case will be closed only after the medics return to Bulgarian soil, and we are working for it to happen as soon as possible," Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev told reporters.
Prosecutor General Boris Velchev said an official transfer request would be sent to Tripoli later in the day.
Libya accused the six of deliberately infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV. The medics, jailed since 1999, deny infecting the children and say their confessions were extracted under torture. Their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment late Tuesday.
Experts and outside scientific reports said the children were contaminated by unhygienic conditions at a hospital in the northeastern coastal city of Benghazi. Fifty of the infected children died.
Velchev said the request to Tripoli was based on a 1984 agreement between the two countries that would allow the medical workers to serve their sentences in Bulgaria. Last month, Bulgaria granted citizenship to the Palestinian doctor.
"It is possible that Libya will reject a transfer, but this agreement allows us to make a second request," Velchev said. He did not give a timeframe of when the medics might return home.
The medics' main Libyan defense lawyer, Osman al-Bizant, told broadcaster Al-Jazeera that their deportation depended on whether their punishment would be enforced in Bulgaria.
Another defense lawyer, Harry Haralampiev, said that under Bulgarian law, it was possible for the six to receive a presidential pardon. But President Georgi Parvanov refused to say if the issue was being considered, telling reporters that such discussions were "not helpful."
Tuesday's ruling came after the children's families each received $1 million, according to a victims' advocate, and agreed to drop their demand for executions.
Libya remains under intense international pressure to free the six, and Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam said Tripoli would consider their deportation to Bulgaria. He said negotiations would take place within "the legal framework and political context" between the two countries.
"In return (for a transfer), improving the conditions of the infected children and their families should be taken into account," Shalqam told The Associated Press.
Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin called the Supreme Judiciary Council's ruling "a huge step in the right direction."
Asked whether it was possible the medics would be pardoned after returning home, Kalfin said: "All judicial options are real."
The United States and European Union welcomed the commutation, which could remove an obstacle toward rebuilding ties with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime.
Portugal, which holds the EU's presidency, said it hoped the medics would return to Bulgaria soon.
EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner was slated to visit Paris on Thursday to discuss the issue with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, said EU spokeswoman Christiane Hohmann.
In another sign that Libya was working to rebuild its international standing, Gadhafi invited French President Nicolas Sarkozy to visit, Elysee Palace spokesman David Martinon said. Sarkozy, who made freeing the medical workers a campaign promise before his May election, has been keen to help them. In a surprise visit last week, French first lady Cecilia Sarkozy met with Gadhafi, the nurses and young HIV-positive Libyans.
In a separate court case in Tripoli, the six medics were found not guilty Wednesday of defaming a police officer whom they had accused of torture when they gave testimony in their trial.
Libya's South Tripoli Court of First Instance did not explain the ruling. The nurses and the Palestinian doctor did not appear in court.
In May, the same court dropped similar charges that had been filed by two Libyans, police officer Jumaa al-Mishri and a doctor, Abdul-Majid al-Shoul, who demanded about $4 million in compensation.
Wednesday's case had been filed by police officer Saleem Ahmed Saleem, who claimed a similar amount in compensation. The medics had denied that they defamed anyone.
During their retrial last year in the HIV case, they said their confessions had been extracted under torture, and named al-Mishri, al-Shoul and Saleem as the culprits.
Bulgaria also seeks the return of Zdravko Georgiev, a husband of a jailed nurse and a co-defendant. He was released two years ago after serving his sentence, but was not allowed to leave Libya.
"Thank God the death sentences were dropped," Georgiev said in a radio interview from Tripoli.
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