Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Medical Workers freed by Libya arrive in Bulgaria

In 1999 five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian medical doctor were charged with intentionally infecting 400 Libyan children with H.I.V at the Benghazi Children’s Hospital where they worked. Benghazi is Libya’s second largest city.
The Libyan leader, Col. Qaddafi said that the nurses were agents of the CIA and Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad.The release comes at the end of eight years of imprisonment, alleged torture to extract confessions, three trials, and two separate death sentences. Bulgaria consistently claimed that the medical workers were not guilty. Physicians for Human Rights and the International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organisations (PHR/IHFFRO) and Amnesty International had long maintained that the medical workers were innocent. The US France and the EU exerted strong pressure on Libya. Libya finally relented and agreed to release all six. There were emotional scenes at Sofia airport -this morning-as the plane touched down.
New York Times

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