Today marks the tenth anniversary since the release of the Bulgarian medics who spent more than eight years in Libyan prisons on charges of intentionally causing an AIDS epidemic in Benghazi in an attempt to destabilize the Jamahiriya. Nurses Kristiana Valcheva, Nasya Nenova, Valentina Siropulo, Valya Chervenyashka and Snezhana Dimitrova, doctor Zdravko Georgiev and Palestinian intern Ashraf Al Hajuj were arrested in Benghazi in February 1999. In 2004 the nurses and Ashraf were sentence to death by a firing squad which were rescinded in 2005 by Libya’s Supreme Court but confirmed by the Court of Appeal in 2006. On 24 July 2007 the nurses returned to Bulgaria following eight years of negotiations for their release completed successfully with the mediation of the European Union, France and Qatar.
