The Court in The Hague has ruled that Libya pays EUR 1 M in damages to the Palestinian doctor with Bulgarian citizenship, Ashraf al-Hadjudj

Al-Hadjuji was jailed in Libya along with five Bulgarian nurses and Bulgarian colleague, Doctor Zdravko Georgiev on charges that they deliberately infected more than 400 children with HIV in a Benghazi hospital.

The news about the Court rule was reported by the lawyer of the Palestinian doctor, who last summer asked 12 Libyan officials to appear in the Courtroom in The Hague, but they never complied. The magistrates issued their rule on March 2, 2012.

The lawyer says that the rule can be appealed, but voices conviction it would turn final over the fact the Libyan side had not been represented during the trial and cannot contest the decision.

The Court rule is now going to be sent to Libya through the Libyan Embassy in The Hague or the Dutch Embassy in Tripoli. If Libya refuses to pay, the lawyer will turn to the European institutions for assistance.

Upon learning the news about the damages, the 5 Bulgarian nurses said they were glad for al-Hadjuji, but also felt abandoned by Bulgaria for not doing the same for them as the Dutch did.

"The Dutch judiciary demonstrated to Bulgaria the right way to react, and made our country look ridiculous in the eyes of Europe," nurse, Valentina Siropoulou is quoted saying.

Right after the medics' jubilant transfer to Sofia and their pardoning in the summer of 2007, Bulgaria's prosecutors made it clear that it will proceed with the lawsuit that would be Bulgaria's response to the travesty of justice in Libya.

The five Bulgarian nurses, Georgiev and al-Hadjudj were interrogated in the Libyan torturers probe in August the same year, together with journalists and diplomats.

Nine Libyan security officers and a doctor were charged and later acquitted of torturing the nurses to extract confessions that they deliberately infected more than 400 children with HIV in a Benghazi hospital.

The nurses 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.

The medics were sentenced to death twice. In July 2007, the involvement of the Sarkozy couple in the final stages of the talks secured their release after spending eight years in a Libyan prison.

The calls for resuming the trial against the torturers gained momentum after Libya's former Justice Minister stated for Al Jazeera that not the Bulgarian medics, but the regime of leader Muammar Gaddafi was responsible for infecting more than 400 children with HIV.