Libya calls Bulgaria for direct negotiations with AIDS victims
Libya-Bulgaria, Politics, 8/18/2005

Libya called on the Bulgarian government to negotiate directly with families of the children who were infected by nurses and a doctor with the AIDS virus in Libyan hospitals.

Five female Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced in Libyan courts for their action, and Libya is now saying it will release the nurses and the doctor if the negotiations with the victim's families proceed well.

The Libyan ambassador in London Muhammad al-Zoui said, after his meeting on Wednesday in Tripoli with the British ambassador in Libya, Antony Layden, and a representative for the American liaison office that the government of Sofia, that a middle solution should be achieved with families of the victims according to which it pays for an agreed deal and the Libyan government would not interfere.

Al-Zoui added that seeking another solution "will be a waste of time, and that Libya will not accept intransigent, nor pressure or bargaining, noting that the issue is clear, and its sides are known, and an understanding can be reached." Al-Zoui also said that the American and British officials showed desire to end the crisis of the Bulgarian nurses during London's presidency of the European Union which expires on December 31st.

In 2004, a Libyan court issued death sentence against the 6 persons who were detained in 1999.

In 2004 Libya suggested that Bulgaria pays compensations equal to those it had paid for the victims of the Lockerbie plane. But the Bulgarian authorities refused, and the families of the victims refused to negotiate with Sofia's authorities, and called for honoring the independence of the Libyan judicial system.

Tripoli accused the five nurses and the Palestinian doctor of injecting 400 Libyan children with the HIV virus, and confirmed that 50 of them had so far died. However, the defendant said that the Libyan accusations are fabricated aiming at hiding the inefficiency of the Libyan hospitals.

Previous Stories:
  Sofia doubts Libyan sentence on officers' not guilty of torturing nurses   (6/8/2005)
  Libyan court adjourned Bulgarian nurses case sentence   (6/1/2005)
  President of Bulgaria meets Qathafi, Shalqam expects solution for nurses crisis   (5/30/2005)

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