Bulgaria seeks transfer of AIDS case medics from Libya

Bulgaria said Wednesday it had begun steps to secure the transfer from Libya of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor reprieved from death sentences for infecting children with HIV/AIDS.

"The procedure around the transfer ... is already underway. I will request that the medical workers be allowed to serve out their sentences at home," chief prosecutor Boris Velchev said.

"The documents with which Bulgaria will request the extradition will be sent today to Libya," Velchev said, adding that the Palestinian doctor, who was recently granted Bulgarian nationality, would be included.

Libya's highest judicial body on Tuesday commuted to life in prison the death sentences against the six medics after a multi-million dollar compensation deal was hammered out with victims' families.

The six, who have been on death row since 2004 and deny any wrongdoing, are expected to serve out their sentences in Bulgaria as the two countries have an extradition treaty.

"We see no reasons for Libya to refuse the extradition," Velchev said, while stressing that the treaty provided no mandatory time framework for concluding a prisoner transfer.

"If the Libyan side is slow to answer the request, we will keep reminding them repeatedly of the need for an answer," he said.

Possible obstacles to a speedy transfer include defamation charges brought against the medics by senior Libyan police officers over claims of torture.

The family of twin girls infected with AIDS have also brought a civil suit against the six.

"Libya decides if the civil suits can hinder the transfer but if there is indeed an obstacle, it is technical and could be overcome," Velchev said.

The five nurses and the doctor, who was granted Bulgarian citizenship earlier this year, have been in a Libyan jail since 1999.

They were twice convicted of deliberately injecting 438 children with HIV-tainted blood in a hospital in Libya's second city of Benghazi on the Mediterranean coast.

The death penalty had been confirmed for a third time by Tripoli's Supreme Court last week.

But Libya's top legal body, the Supreme Judicial Council, commuted the death sentences to life in prison Tuesday after the families of the infected children received money under a compensation deal with the Kadhafi foundation charity.

Bulgarian observers were impatient for the nurses' return in the wake of the compensation payout.

"They took the money but held the nurses," left-wing daily Standard said in its front-page headline Wednesday, condemning the "vicious mockery of our nurses in Libya".

President Georgy Parvanov dismissed speculation he would pardon the medics immediately after their transfer to Bulgaria.

"Talk of pardoning is not advisable at this stage. Let us not set sails before the wind comes," Parvanov said.

Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev said: "For us the case will be over when they return at home".

"Bulgaria will press for this to happen as quickly as possible," he added, urging "calm and a bit more patience."

Nurses Snezhana Dimitrova, Nasya Nenova, Valya Cherveniashka, Valentina Siropulo and Kristiana Valcheva and doctor Ashraf Juma Hajuj have always pleaded their innocence.

They say confessions were extracted under torture while foreign experts testified that the six were used as scapegoats for poor hygiene at the hospital that sparked the AIDS outbreak.