Bulgaria to Sue Nurses' Libyan Torturers

Politics | December 19, 2006, Tuesday // 00:00
Bulgaria: Bulgaria to Sue Nurses' Libyan Torturers Bulgaria will initiate a lawsuit against the ten Libyans, whom the death-sentenced nurses accuse of torturing them into making confessions, senior prosecutor Boris Velchev said. Photo by Nadya Kotseva (Sofia Photo Agency)

Bulgaria will initiate a lawsuit against the ten Libyans, whom the death-sentenced nurses accuse of torturing them into making confessions, the senior prosecutor said.

"That option has never been underestimated. Now that the death sentences are confirmed, we have nothing left to hope for," chief prosecutor Boris Velchev said.

"I am perfectly acquainted with the trial. I know perfectly well that there is not a single fact to prove the Bulgarian medics are guilty. The court's ruling has nothing to do with administering justice. That's the only comment that I can make," Velchev commented.

Nine Libyan security officers and a doctor were charged and later acquitted of torturing the nurses to extract confessions that they deliberately infected 426 children with the HIV virus that causes AIDS in a Benghazi hospital.

At the end of June 2006 a Libyan court rejected the appeal of five Bulgarian medics on the acquittal of the Libyans, saying the evidence against the policemen was too weak to convict them.

The nurses, however, have complained of severe torture during police interrogation, saying they were jolted with electricity, beaten with sticks and repeatedly jumped on while strapped to their beds. Two of the women said they were raped.

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