African rights body slams Bulgaria for pardoning AIDS medics

A pan-African rights group Sunday denounced Bulgaria for pardoning six medics who had been on death row in Libya after being convicted of deliberately infecting 438 children with the HIV virus. "This pardon is illegal and proper procedures were not respected," Brahima Kone, head of the Pan-African Assocation for Human Rights (UIDH), was quoted as saying in local newspapers.

"Sofia has displayed great contempt for the victims and their families," he said. Libya has also trenchantly criticised Sofia and said it will seek support from the Arab League, the African Union and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in the row over Bulgaria's "betrayal".

Held in Libya since 1999, the five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor with Bulgarian citizenship were sentenced to death after their conviction, then had that sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

Libya allowed the six to return home on Tuesday to Bulgaria, where they zere immediately pardoned by Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov.

Their release, following a deal with the European Union in which French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia played a prominent public role, had ended in an ugly manner, Kone said, with "the pardon on the sly."