Bulgarian medics call for legal action

Bulgarian medics call for legal action

Kristiana Valcheva, Nasya Nenova and Ashraf al-Hazouz said they were ready to testify in an investigation into 11 Libyan police officers, which Bulgaria started last January for alleged torture of the medics.

Libya had accused the six of deliberately infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV; 50 of the children died. The medics, jailed since 1999, were initially sentenced to death, but later had their sentence commuted to life imprisonment. They deny the charge and say their confessions were extracted under torture.

Speaking on Wednesday at their first press conference after returning home, the medics said they could forgive those who tortured them but said they want them tried.

"I could forgive those who tortured us because they were tools in the hands of others who issued the orders," said Kristiana Valcheva.

Recalling the first months in prison, Nenova said "it was horrifying."

"They tortured us, they did not allow us to have a lawyer. It was only after 13 months that we could meet with our lawyer and try to whisper what they were doing to us."

The Libyans will be investigated for allegedly using coercion, torture and threats—between February and May 1999—to extract false confessions from the medics, which subsequently led to their death sentences, prosecutor Nikolai Kokinov said.

There has been no indication Libya would allow the officers to travel to Bulgaria to take part in any trial.

The medics were sentenced to death twice—in 2004 and again in 2006, following a Supreme Court appeal. The death sentences were based on the nurses' alleged confessions, but some of the nurses say they are innocent and were beaten and tortured to admit guilt.

In 2005, the nurses had filed suits for torture against 10 Libyan officers, but the charges were rejected by a Libyan court.

On Wednesday, only three of the six medics attended the news conference. A doctor who was accompanying them said the other could not come because of post-traumatic stress.

The medics received an emotional welcome Tuesday from family members, government officials and hundreds of ordinary Bulgarians. They were immediately granted a presidential pardon.

The five nurses—all mothers—traveled to Libya nearly a decade ago, attracted by promises of higher paying jobs. They were sent through a Bulgarian recruitment agency to al-Fath Children's Hospital in Libya's second-largest city of Benghazi. They were arrested a year after their arrival.

For Nasya Nenova, the worst moment was in 1999, when the nurse was told that she was accused of infecting more than 400 children with HIV.

"If it wasn't me, they told me, I knew who did," she said. "And throughout all these difficult years I was asking myself, 'Why was it me that was chosen to be accused of this evil deed?' "

When asked when they learned they were going to be freed, Valcheva said the nurses were awakened at 4 o'clock Tuesday morning by a guard who said the prison director wanted to meet them. He told the nurses that they had three hours to get ready to leave "because the wife of the French president was going to take us home with a French airplane."

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said that Bulgaria may write off Libya's foreign debt to the country as part of humanitarian aid measures.

Canceling the US$54 million (EUR 39mn) debt would not be pay back for the release of the five nurses and a Palestinian doctor, Stanishev said.

It should not be viewed "as paying ransom, or admitting [the medical workers'] guilt, but rather as a humanitarian gesture," he said.

Until now, Bulgaria has vehemently rejected the idea of paying compensation to the families, or writing off some of Libya's debt, saying such a move would be seen as an admission of the guilt of the nurses.

European countries have promised millions of dollars to a fund for HIV-infected children in Libya.

"The fund, chaired by an EU representative, is aimed at helping the families of the Libyan HIV-infected children, by providing medical care, medical facilities and training of medical personnel," Stanishev said.

Libya's decision to allow the six to return to Bulgaria—nominally to serve out the rest of their life sentences—came after months of pressure from the United States and the EU, who made clear to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi that resolving the issue was key to normalizing relations, an important Libyan goal.

Stanishev said that the return of the medics to Bulgaria shows the positive implications of EU membership for Bulgarian citizens.

"Without EU support we would have hardly achieved this result on our own," Stanishev said.

Behind Tuesday's dramatic release were secretive negotiations, with the French president's wife as a key protagonist.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin told journalists that the last 48 hours were the most dramatic in the release efforts.

"At 2 a.m. on Tuesday, just hours before their departure, Mrs. Cecilia Sarkozy threatened to break off the negotiations and leave Tripoli," Kalfin said, adding that this was the decisive moment in the medics' release.

Nurse Kristiana Valcheva said that during her first trip to Libya Cecilia Sarkozy had promised them they will be free soon.

"She kept her promise," Valcheva said.