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Bulgarian Medics Describe Libyan Captivity, Freedom

25 07 2007  Sofia _ Bulgarian medics who spent years facing death sentences in Libya said Wednesday they want their lives to return to normal and have yet to decide on their futures in the face of a vibrant welcome home.

The medics were arrested in 1999, on accusations of deliberately infecting more than 400 Libyan children with AIDS at the children’s hospital where they worked. Between 2004 and this year, they were sentenced to death by Libyan courts three times. International scientific reports cited bad hygienic conditions as the reason for the AIDS epidemic.

"The hardest moment was when they accused me of infecting 400 children with AIDS. During all these years, I asked myself who had done it and why I had to take the responsibility for that," Nasya Nenova said at an emotional press conference after all received medical checkups at Sofia’s military medical academy hospital.

"The truth will come out," Dr. Ashraf El-Hajouj, a Palestinian who became a Bulgarian citizen in June, said repeatedly.

The other formerly condemned medics -- Snezhana Dimitrova, Valentina Siropulo and Valya Chervenyashka -- did not feel well enough to attend the press conference, Vulcheva and Nenova said.

Dr. Zdravko Georgiev was admitted to the military medical academy hospital with high blood pressure complaints but his condition had stabilised Wednesday, Bulgarian media reported. Georgiev was acquitted of similar charges by Libyan courts in 2004 but still held in the country until Tuesday.

Kristiana Vulcheva said that it was too early to say whether the former prisoners would continue with plans to sue their alleged Libyan torturers.

“It is early for us to think about those things. We just want to forget and to start living our new life,” Vulcheva said.

Libya last week commuted the death sentences against the six medics to life imprisonment. That came after each HIV victim's family received a $1 million financial settlement. Bulgaria’s president pardoned the medics minutes after they landed in Sofia Tuesday.

“Yesterday’s event – the return of our medics – is maybe the brightest and most tangible evidence for the people, of what the membership in the EU means for Bulgaria, what European solidarity means, what the feeling of support means,” Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev said Wednesday. Bulgaria joined the European Union in January.

Bulgaria may forgive $54 million Libya owes for arms and technology it bought during the communist era as a contribution to the families, said Stanishev, whose government took office in 2005. Bulgaria previously rejected the idea of paying any compensation because such a move would be seen as an admission of the guilt.