Devil's Advocate Di Stefano: Libya-Jailed Bulgarian Nurses Will Be Home Soon

Novinite Insider » INTERVIEW | July 20, 2007, Friday // 00:00
Bulgaria: Devil's Advocate Di Stefano: Libya-Jailed Bulgarian Nurses Will Be Home Soon Photo by images.google.com

Lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano, dubbed the "Devil's Advocate" because he has represented some of the world's most notorious villains, gave an interview to Darik Radio shortly after Libya's High Judiciary Council commuted the death verdicts of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor for life sentences.

Interview of Svetoslav Ivanov

Q: You were among the optimists, who believed that the Libya-jailed Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor will not be executed but after all they were sentenced to life jail. Doesn't it sound really scary?

A: They will be in Sofia very soon and that is all I can say.

Q: What makes you think this way?

A: Have I been wrong so far?

Q: You have not been wrong as far as their execution was concerned. But still they are not free...

A: When I wrote Colonel Qaddafi and I spoke to Libyan government officials I said there no execution will be performed, the medics will be sentenced to life imprisonment instead, and then, within days or weeks, they will be sent to Sofia to serve their sentences. Finally, under the agreement between Libya and Bulgaria, the amount of time they will spend in jail depends on the Bulgarian government. So you will release them after their return to the country.

Q: Whom have you talked to exactly?

A: I talked to a reliable person. Whenever there is an important decision to be made, one should go to the constitution of a country, to find out who has the final say and approach nobody but him. It was exactly what I did.

Q: Does it mean that you had contacted the Chairman of Libya's High Judicial Council, who is actually the country's justice minister?

A: Libya's High Judicial Council or the Supreme Court is as effectively working as in many other states. In most Arab countries the courts are governed by the president. In Libya the Judicial Council is also a political court. I want to add that much credit must go to the Bulgarian government for their actions in the past three months.

Q: There have been made numerous associations between the HIV case in Libya and the Lockerbie assault. Are they well based?

A: The two cases have similar elements. In my view, and as I told Colonel Qaddafi, the Bulgarian nurses and the Bulgarian doctor, because Ashraf al-Hadjudj was granted a Bulgarian citizenship, are not guilty on the charges of deliberately infecting Libyan children with HIV in the Benghazi hospital. So is Abdel Basset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, who was jailed for life over the Lockerbie assault. In view course the accused of both crimes will prove their innocence. That is why I believe that the Bulgarians will be back home very soon and this nightmare will be finally over. That was what I said to Colonel Qaddafi even today. And what is also important - I posted on my web site the news concerning the final decision of Libya's High Judicial Council long before it was officially announced.

Q: Who gave you this information?

A: He that counts.

Q: Is this man Colonel Qaddafi?

A: It was he that counts and that is all I can say. In law the results are what is important after all. The journey is almost irrelevant once you get there.

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