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Bulgarian medics testify about tortures in Libya

Other News Materials 10 August 2007 16:32 (UTC +04:00)

( AFP ) - Six Bulgarian medics freed in July after spending more than eight years in a Libyan prison, told an investigation commission Friday in Sofia how they were subjected to torture in jail.

The six medics, who had been convicted of deliberately infecting over 400 Libyan children with the HIV virus at a hospital in Benghazi where they worked, had said upon returning to Sofia in July that Libyan police had used electric shocks and beat them to extract confessions.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor's office said at the time that the office was considering whether to launch a suit in Bulgaria.

The investigation commission has been meeting since the beginning of this year in order to determine whether charges can be filed against Libya on behalf of the six medics -- a Palestinian-born doctor who is now a Bulgarian citizen and five female Bulgarian nurses.

The doctor is planning to sue Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, the Dutch news agency ANP reported last week.

The group was extradited from Libya on July 24 after more than eight years of imprisonment and received a presidential pardon upon their arrival in Sofia.

The medics have always maintained their innocence, with the support of international experts who have said the infections occurred before their arrival at the hospital and were sparked by poor hygiene.

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