Released Bulgarian Medics: We Want Our Old Lives Back
Politics | July 25, 2007, Wednesday
Freed Bulgarian nurses Kristiyana Vulcheva (C) and Nasya Nenova (L) and the Palestinian doctor Ashraf Al-Hadjudj (R) met reporters for the first time after their return to Sofia. Photo by Kameliya Atanasova (Sofia Photo Agency)
Freed Bulgarian nurses Kristiyana Vulcheva and Nasya Nenova and the Palestinian doctor Ashraf Al-Hadjudj met reporters for the first time after their return to Sofia at a special press conference on Wednesday.
The other three nurses - Valentina Siropolu, Valya Cherveniyashka and Snezhana Dimitrova as well as doctor Zdravko Georgiev have not attended the event because of their ill health.
At the beginning of the press conference, the medics thanked the journalists for their support during all the eight years they spent behind bars in Libya.
"Due to you the world understood what was happing with us," Kristiyana said.
"I am happy to be Bulgarian and I would like to thank everybody in the country," added doctor Ashraf in Bulgarian language.
Asked if they could forgive to all the people, responsible for their tragedy in the past eight years and a half, the nurses said they will try to do it as one should be able to forgive.
"Now we just want our previous way of life back but we do not know yet how that could happen," the medics explained.
The two nurses and the doctor have categorically announced they are going to testify in the probes against their Libyan torturers although they are unwilling to remember the past.
Asked about the way they feel being free citizens, the medics said they have not tasted freedom yet.
"We just feel like coming back from hell to heaven," Krisitiyana ended.
The seven medical workers arrived in Bulgaria Tuesday morning to hear President Georgi Parvanov pardoned them, cancelling the life sentences, imposed on them by Libya's High Judicial Council on July 17.
The other three nurses - Valentina Siropolu, Valya Cherveniyashka and Snezhana Dimitrova as well as doctor Zdravko Georgiev have not attended the event because of their ill health.
At the beginning of the press conference, the medics thanked the journalists for their support during all the eight years they spent behind bars in Libya.
"Due to you the world understood what was happing with us," Kristiyana said.
"I am happy to be Bulgarian and I would like to thank everybody in the country," added doctor Ashraf in Bulgarian language.
Asked if they could forgive to all the people, responsible for their tragedy in the past eight years and a half, the nurses said they will try to do it as one should be able to forgive.
"Now we just want our previous way of life back but we do not know yet how that could happen," the medics explained.
The two nurses and the doctor have categorically announced they are going to testify in the probes against their Libyan torturers although they are unwilling to remember the past.
Asked about the way they feel being free citizens, the medics said they have not tasted freedom yet.
"We just feel like coming back from hell to heaven," Krisitiyana ended.
The seven medical workers arrived in Bulgaria Tuesday morning to hear President Georgi Parvanov pardoned them, cancelling the life sentences, imposed on them by Libya's High Judicial Council on July 17.
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