PLIGHT OF NURSES AND DOCTOR HELD IN LIBYA CONTINUES ON AND ON

Non-government organizations held a protest rally Sunday in Brussels in support of the 5 Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor imprisoned in Libya. The organizations “Doctors Without Borders” (“Medecines Sans Frontieres”), “Lawyers Without Borders”, “Together Against The Death Penalty” and the Moroccan association “Prisons Watch” initiated the event in front of the European parliament Building. The groups called for the release of the detained medics.

Last night Dozens of Bulgarian music stars appealed for "Freedom for the Bulgarian Medics, Mercy for the Libyan Children" during a concert in Sofia, Bulgaria. Lili Ivanova, Kotseto-Kalki, Margarita Hranova and a child church choir performed at the National Opera in a bid to boost public support for the five Bulgarian nurses on death row in Libya.

On November 15th the Supreme Court in Libya is expected to take up the appeals against the death sentences of the Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor who have been accused with the alleged deliberate infection with the AIDS virus of more than 400 Libyan children in Benghazi. The accusation is considered by almost everyone outside of Libya to be absurd.

The Washington Times newspaper published information recently that the USA and the EU were in the last phase of signing a deal for the release of the Bulgarian nurses.

The British Sunday Times newspaper published information in the past few days that Libya had suggested it would spare the lives of the sentenced Bulgarians and the Palestine doctor if Great Britain gives back the man sentenced for the airline bombing over Lockerby, Scotland which took the lives of 270 people.

Meanwhile, the editor in chief of the Libyan oppositional newspaper Akhbar, Ashur Shimar, reported that the Bulgarian and the Libyan side had agreed for the release of the Bulgarian nurses in exchange of USD 1 billion. The Bulgarian Minister of Justice Georgi Petkanov says that won’t happen for the nurses are guilty of nothing. Sources: In Focus (Bulgaria), BNN (Bulgaria), Sofia News Agency