Medics home after eight years in Libyan prison

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria today after eight and a half years in prison in Libya.

The medics, sentenced to life in prison in Libya for contaminating children with the Aids virus, arrived on board a plane with French first lady Cecilia Sarkozy and the EU’s commissioner for foreign affairs, Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

The six came down the steps from the plane and were welcomed on the tarmac by family members who hugged them, one lifting the Palestinian doctor off the ground.

They were given bouquets of flowers, and Bulgaria’s president and prime minister were present, greeting the nurses and Mrs Sarkozy, who had been part of the delegation that negotiated the group's return.

“I waited so long for this moment,” nurse Snezhana Dimitrova said before falling in the arms of her family.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said neither the European Union nor France paid money to Libya for the release of the medics.

However, he said Qatar mediated the release and hinted the Gulf country may have had a broader role in resolving the crisis. He did not elaborate.

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov pardoned the six upon arrival in Sofia, the capital.

“Neither Europe nor France has made the smallest financial contribution to Libya,” Mr Sarkozy said at a news conference in Paris shortly after a French plane carrying the medics touched down in Sofia.