Talks with Libya over Bulgarian Medics Enter "Last Mile"

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | June 11, 2007, Monday // 00:00

Talks for the release of five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor, sentenced to death on charges of intentionally infecting Libyan children with the HIV, have entered the "final mile", Seif al-Islam Qaddafi told reporters after the visit of two top European diplomats late on Sunday.

The medics have been in detention since 1999 and were sentenced to death in 2004, a sentence confirmed at the retrial that ended last year, on charges of infecting more than 400 Libyan children with the HIV.

Seif al-Islam, the son of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and chair of the Qaddafi humanitarian foundation, and relatives of the children met with European Commissioner for external relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner and German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier, who visited the country.

"We are in the last mile of the marathon, and that's the hardest part," Seif al-Islam said after the meeting, but added he was hopeful of a quick resolution of the crisis.

Their visit comes hot on the heels of Tony Blair's trip to Libya, during which he was reported to have struck a deal with the Libyan side, one that could bring the crisis to an end before Germany relinquishes the rotating presidency of the EU later this month.

The relatives are asking for USD 10 M in blood money for each infected child, which Bulgaria, a EU member since January, can hardly afford to pay.

The trials did not take into account the studies by AIDS researchers Luc Montagnier and Vittorio Colizzi, who said that unhygienic medical practices, and not intentional actions by the Bulgarian medics, fuelled the outbreak.

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