Libya has finally released the foreign medics they accused of deliberately infecting children with AIDS, after the European Union sufficiently abased themselves: Medics freed after Libya-EU deal.

(CNN) — Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were pardoned by President Georgi Parvanov upon their arrival in Sofia on Tuesday after spending eight-and-a-half years in prison in Libya.

The medics, who were sentenced to life in prison for contaminating children with the AIDS virus but now maintain their innocence, arrived on board a French presidential plane after the EU agreed a deal with Libya on medical aid and political ties.

The round of negotiations that freed the medics began over the weekend and involved European Union commissioner for foreign affairs, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, chief French presidential aide Claude Gueant and French first lady Cecilia Sarkozy.

They’re not saying how much they paid, of course, but you can be sure there was more involved in this deal than “medical aid and political ties.”

(Hat tip: Terp Mole.)