EU urges swift release of Bulgarian medics

BULGARIA:The European Union and Bulgaria urged Libya yesterday to release swiftly five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who were this week spared execution for allegedly infecting 460 children with HIV-contaminated blood.

Tripoli commuted their death sentences to life imprisonment on Tuesday, after families of the infected children each accepted $1 million (€725,000) in compensation, but the fact that the medics were not released drew international condemnation.

The government in Sofia said it was sending Tripoli the legal documents needed to transfer the medics to Bulgaria, while the EU offered Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy the prospect of closer ties if the prisoners were released after spending more than eight years in jail.

"The extradition request will be sent to Libya by the end of the day," said Bulgarian foreign minister Ivailo Kalfin. "A great deal of the decisions depend on Libyan authorities. This result was not the best. The case will be over for us when the nurses arrive in Bulgaria."

However, Libyan foreign minister Abdelrahaman Shalgham said the case was still "not closed" and that Tripoli was awaiting guarantees regarding the treatment of the children.

"The ball is in the court of Bulgaria and the European Union," he said.

Leading immunologists say the HIV outbreak in a Benghazi hospital almost certainly began before the medics started work there, and was caused by poor hygiene. Some of the nurses say they were raped and tortured to elicit confessions, and a Libyan court cleared them yesterday of defamation charges relating to those accusations.

Their case has hampered Col Gadafy's attempt to draw closer to the West since abandoning his illicit weapons programme in 2003. Libya wants foreign investment to boost its economy and exploit its large oil reserves, and Europe and the US see it as a potentially useful energy partner.

"The EU presidency acknowledges the potential of increased EU-Libya co-operation in many areas of common interest in light of a satisfactory resolution of this process," the bloc's Portuguese presidency said of the medics' plight.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU commissioner for external relations, said she hoped "legal proceedings can start immediately for the transfer of the nurses and the medics back to Europe".

Her use of "Europe" rather than "Bulgaria" sparked suggestions that the medics may be released to another country, with France being the most likely destination after President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly accepted Col Gadafy's invitation to visit Libya in the coming days.

Mr Sarkozy promised during his election campaign to seek the medics' release, and his wife Cecilia made a surprise visit to Libya last week to meet them, Col Gadafy and the HIV-infected children.

Amid much speculation over who funded the families' payout - and Bulgaria's staunch refusal to offer so-called blood money for the nurses - Ms Ferrero-Waldner insisted the compensation was "Libyan money" from the Gadafy Foundation charity.

The main EU contribution, she said, was in helping upgrade the Benghazi hospital.