News
2007-05-15
Bulgarians pray
for release of medics
The spiritual
leader of Bulgaria's Orthodox Christians on Saturday called
for a ''just verdict'' in the case of six medics sentenced
t
The spiritual
leader of Bulgaria's Orthodox Christians on Saturday called
for a ''just verdict'' in the case of six medics sentenced
to death in Libya for allegedly infecting about 400
children with HIV.
Thousands of
people, some holding banners reading ''You are not alone,''
attended a public prayer service led by Patriarch Maxim in
front of a cathedral in Bulgaria's capital, Sofia.
Among those in the crowd were relatives of the five
Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor accused in the
case.
''We pray for the
motherly mercy of the Holy Virgin for the innocent
Bulgarian nurses, enduring severe suffering on foreign soil,
to receive soonest a just verdict and to return home
to their beloved ones,'' Patriarch Maxim said.
The medics were
condemned to death in a December retrial amid
international concern over the fairness of Libyan justice. A
death sentence also was handed down in 2004.
The United States and the European Union have
expressed shock and disappointment with the verdicts
and have called on Libya to free the nurses and the doctor.
The sentences
were based on the nurses' alleged confessions, but some of
the nurses have said they were tortured into admitting
guilt. Expert witnesses at the trial testified that
HIV was rampant at the Benghazi hospital where the
children were infected before the Bulgarians began
working there in the late 1990s.
The six medical
workers have been in jail since their arrest in February
1999. They are awaiting the appeal of their convictions and
death sentences before Libya's supreme court. (Veselin
Toshkov, AP)
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