LIBYA: Libya condemns Bulgaria's pardon of the six Bulgarian medics

Record ID: 575005

  • Title: LIBYA: Libya condemns Bulgaria's pardon of the six Bulgarian medics
  • Date: 29th July 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LIBYAN PRIME MINISTER AL-BAGHDADI AL-MAHMOUDI SAYING: "The issue is to be followed up. Libya will not keep silent. Guarantor countries will keep following. France is one of the guarantors. President Sarkozy is a guarantor of the agreement. Therefore Libya will keep following this subject with all humanitarian and international organizations and will take the right procedure that serves the interest of our country." PRESS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LIBYAN PRIME MINISTER AL-BAGHDADI AL-MAHMOUDI SAYING: "All the money came from Benghazi Fund and Libya did not pay a penny. All the money came from Bulgaria, Qatar and Slovakia and Czech Republic. I have all the documents which indicates the transfer of the money to Benghazi Fund." PRESS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 13th August 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVACJQAF7ZX0MA8BYBNFBHUPNKEQ
  • Story Text: Libya has called on other Arab countries to cut diplomatic and economic ties with Bulgaria after it pardoned six medics that Libya had jailed for infecting hundreds of children with HIV.
    The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Qatar and Bulgaria contributed to an international fund to treat hundreds of children who contracted HIV at a Libyan hospital and support their families, Libya said on Saturday.
    The Benghazi International Fund has already given $1 million to each of the families of the infected child under a deal that enabled death sentences to be commuted on six foreign medics convicted on charges of deliberately contaminating the children.
    The payout was financed by a $460 million loan to the fund made by an official Libyan development institution that is due to be repaid as and when donors make resources available.
    In a subsequent deal, the European Union promised closer ties with Libya in exchange for custody of the medics. They were flown this week to Bulgaria where they were immediately pardoned and released by the new EU member country's president.
    The fund will also finance the medical treatment of the children and a series of improvements to the Libyan health case system. It has pledges of financial and in-kind contributions for all the goals it is pursuing worth about $477 million.
    Libya's al-Mahmoudi said the fund had already received that amount, allowing it to pay for assistance to the families and what he called "repair of the damage". He didn't specify whether the money covered the payout to the families or the programme of treatment and medical facility upgrades.
    Bulgaria said it contributed to the fund through a Bulgarian non-governmental organisation in which private Bulgarian and foreign companies took part, but that the sums given so far were symbolic compared with what was paid to the families.
    Jailed since 1999, the six medics were twice condemned to death after trials that drew sharp international condemnation. The medical workers said they were innocent and that earlier confessions of guilt were extracted from them using torture.
    After Bulgaria released them, victims' families back in Libya condemned what they called Bulgaria's "recklessness" and demanded the medical workers be re-arrested by Interpol.
    Libya then weighed in, saying the pardon had violated earlier accords with Bulgaria. On Saturday it said it had called on Arab League countries to review ties with Bulgaria.
    "Yes, we submitted a memorandum to the Arab League and we demanded a review of the Arab position with regard to Bulgaria," Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam said.
    The league's members are due to meet on Monday (July 30).
    Bulgarian officials insisted the pardon was legal and urged Libya to understand that the resolution to the nurses crisis was in everyone's interest.
    The release of the medics removed an obstacle to Libya's efforts to end three decades of diplomatic isolation, but Libya's prime minister said the matter would not be forgotten.
    "The issue is to be followed up. Libya will not keep silent.
    Guarantor countries will keep following. France is one of the guarantors.
    President Sarkozy is a guarantor of the agreement. Therefore Libya will keep following this subject with all humanitarian and international organizations and will take the right procedure that serves the interest of our country," al-Mahmoudi said.
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