The Palestinian doctor Ashraf al-Hajuj has tied the knot with his beloved Bulgarian Olya late on Saturday. Photo by Kameliya Atanasova (Sofia Photo Agency)
The Palestinian doctor Ashraf al-Hajuj has tied the knot with his beloved Bulgarian Olya late on Saturday.
The wedding came as another happy ending of the Libyan saga, in which the doctor, together with the Bulgarian nurses spend eight years in jail, wrongly accused of infecting children with HIV.
The couple said "yes" in the Sofia Municipality building. The two were declared husband and wife by Sofia Mayor Boyko Borisov before the smiling faces of friend and relatives.
Bulgaria's former foreign minister Solomon Passy was the best man, and the maid of honour was the incumbent EU Affairs Minister Gergana Grancharova.
When the bride, in her snow-white dress, and her loved Ashraf put their signatures on the papers, the doctor's family, who travelled from the Netherlands to attend the happy occasion, cheered the newlyweds as is the Palestinian custom.
Mayor Borissov cheered Ashraf to drink the glass of wine to the bottom, while the Bulgarian medics who shared the doctor's destiny in Libya congratulated the happy couple.
After the official wedding ceremony, the newlyweds, together will all their guest went to celebrate in the restaurant of Rodina Hotel in Sofia.
Recently, Ashraf and Olya got married by the Muslim tradition, but Olya will not convert to Islam, as her husband repsects her own religion.