None Dare Call It Ransom

Thu, Aug 2, 2007 at 11:12:59 am PDT

By sheer coincidence, shortly after Libya freed the Bulgarian nurses, Bulgaria is going to waive $57 million of Libyan debt.

Bulgaria is to waive $57m (£29m) of debt it is owed by Libya following the release of six medics convicted of infecting Libyan children with HIV.

Instead the money will be diverted to an international fund for the victims and their families, officials said.

The five nurses and a Palestinian-born doctor, who served eight years of the life sentences they received, had always maintained they were innocent. They were pardoned by the president on their arrival in Bulgaria last month.

“With these funds Bulgaria aims to help Libya in its efforts to modernise its medical infrastructure, to contribute for the treatment of the HIV-infected children and for paying financial aid to their families,” the BTA news agency quoted a government spokesman as saying.