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Plan to Send Jailed Bulgarians to Strasbourg Scorned

29 03 2007  Mainstream parties give novel attempt to free nurses in Libya a cool reception.

By Ekaterina Petrova in Sofia (Balkan Insight, 29 Mar 07)

Picture the scene: as the Members of the European Parliament, MEPs, meet on May 23, they stand to applaud the entry of 18 new members from Bulgaria, the first ever elected from Bulgaria to serve in the assembly.

But as the MEPs clap, only 12 Bulgarians actually enter the chamber. “Apologies”, they say. “Our colleagues are unable to come because their death sentences in Libya have held them back.”

In his office in Tripoli, the Libyan leader, Colonel Qaddafi, wrings his hands. “I am going to have to let them go,” he murmurs. “They are now members of the European Parliament.”

Such was the scenario envisaged by one group of Bulgarian citizens, had Bulgaria’s political parties accepted their proposal to nominate the five nurses jailed in Libya as Bulgarian MEPs.

But in spite of strong public and media support for the proposal, parliament ruled out the possibility on March 28.

Now the committee behind the initiative says the way politicians have treated their plan shows they lack dedication to the problem.

The Bulgarian nurses have been in jail for eight years, charged with deliberately infecting 393 children with the HIV virus.

Libya’s authorities arrested Christiana Vulcheva, Nasya Nenova, Snezhana Dimitrova, Valentina Siropulo, Valya Chervenyashka, and Zdravko Georgiev, a doctor, in February 1999, in connection with an HIV/AIDS epidemic in a Benghazi children’s hospital.

Disregarding reports by international scientists that insisted they were all innocent of the charges, a Libyan court in May 2004 sentenced the five women to death.

At the same time, Dr Georgiev was acquitted, though he has still not been allowed to leave the country.

After Libya’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial, the five women had their death sentences confirmed in December 2006. The sentence is currently being appealed against. A fresh verdict is expected in May.

Bulgaria has tried all kinds of diplomatic tactics and legal means to liberate the five without success. The recent initiative to elect all six to the European parliament was a novel, alternative, approach.

The committee officially forwarded its request to all the parliamentary parties last week, after several months in which the idea has been floating in public.

Some international as well as local media gave it support. In its March 15 issue, the Economist called it “an ingenious and commendable suggestion”, adding that “it will catapult the scandal of the imprisoned nurses into the heart of Europe’s political institutions, and demonstrate an excellent non-partisan spirit in Bulgarian politics (not always known for its sober pursuit of the national interest).”

Few local politicians saw it that way. Some complained that it was unserious. Many independent observers also faulted the idea. “By turning down the initiative, the politicians only demonstrated they had common
sense,” Zoya Dimitrova, a journalist for Politika weekly, commented.

The politicians also noted that the proposal was technically inadmissible as under the law, nominees for the European parliament must reside in Bulgaria, or in another EU member state, for at least two years preceding the elections. The jailed nurses have been away for eight.

“There is no legal possibility to accomplish this initiative,” said Desislav Chukolov, of the nationalist Ataka party.

In reply, Alexandar Djurov, a law professor and a member of the committee behind the initiative, suggested the law could be changed if there was sufficient political will. “If there is a will, there is a way,” he said.

He turned out to be right, in the sense that political will was clearly lacking. After a proposal to amend the law, submitted by United Democratic Forces MP Yane Yanev, reached the plenary hall of parliament on March 28, deputies rejected it.

Politicians found other shortcomings in the initiative, beyond the technicalities.

While the initiative committee said electing the nurses to Strasbourg would offer Libya’s leader “an easy way to get rid of the hot potato he now doesn’t know how to handle”, as committee member Vasil Vasilev put it, many deputies disagreed.

Kristian Vigenin, from the ruling Coalition for Bulgaria, said he did not believe electing the nurses would necessarily assist their plight. Vigenin said he doubted that “MEPs or MPs from other countries would be freed from responsibility [in Libya] just because of that [being elected]”.

Some politicians criticised the idea as “populist” and also denied it would help the nurses in any practical way. Borislav Ralchev, deputy head of the National Movement Simeon the Second, NDSV, said making the medics European deputies would not put Libya under any legal obligation to do anything about them.

Others went further, dubbing the idea as indecent. “It is unfair to play with an issue that is so sensitive to society and to test the feelings of the victims and their relatives,” said Antonia Purvanova, of the NDSV.

The opposition dismissed the idea on other grounds. Asen Agov, of the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria, said that despite his party’s requests, the government and the institutions involved with the case had not come up with an expert opinion concerning the concrete results that the initiative might yield.

However reasonable the politicians’ objections sound, they do little to help the feelings of the victims. “It is the moment for the politicians, parliament and diplomats to show how far they are committed to solving our problem,” Dr Georgiev told the media.

Despite the blow it received on March 28, the initiative may still have some life in it. On March 29, Yane Yanev, who submitted the proposal to parliament, said that his party Order, Lawfulness, and Justice, still intends to nominate the medics, despite the legal problems and the need to collect 10,000 signatures for each candidate - a requirement for non-partisan nominees.

Ekaterina Petrova is BIRN Bulgaria project coordinator. Balkan Insight is BIRN’s online publication.