Kristiyana Valcheva, one of the five Bulgarian nurses who spent more than eight years in a Libyan jail accused of deliberately infecting children with the HIV, has launched her biography describing her ordeal in Sofia on Sunday.

Ghost-written by Bulgarian reporter Mirolyuba Benatova and Marie-Therese Cuny, a French journalist who focuses on women's issues, the book portrays the events, which included a long imprisonment, torture and two trials, from Valcheva's own point of view.

"This book is my life over the last 48 years. I am extremely candid and everything in it is the truth," Valcheva told reporters at the launch of the book, titled "Eight years as Qaddafi's hostage" in Bulgarian.

"I want people to read it because [the prosecution's] scenario portrayed me as the head of the conspiracy and I was the one demonised most over the past eight years and a half. That is why I am being so open with my life," she added.

The book was released in French last month, under the title "J'ai gardé la tête haute", and is also available in German under the name "Ich bin in der Hölle gewesen".

An English version of the book has also been scheduled for publication.

The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death in Libya on charges of deliberately infecting more than 400 children with the HIV virus, which causes AIDS. The medics have maintained their innocence throughout the proceedings.

Their sentences were shifted to life imprisonment after reaching a settlement with the families of the infected children and were pardoned after they were extradited back to Bulgaria in July.

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