Tripoli Six freed!

The six medics jailed and sentenced to death in Libya for the wrongful conviction of deliberately spreading HIV to the patients they were treating, were freed today.

After their sentence got changed to life in prison, the Bulgarian government asked for the rest of their sentence to be served in Bulgaria. When the medics arrived in Bulgaria, they were pardoned by President Georgi Parvanov of Bulgaria, thus ending their sentence, after they had spent 8½ years in jail.

The medics, 5 Bulgarian nurses and a Palistinian doctor, were freed as an result of the significant pressure put on Libya by the EU, and the hard negotiations between Libya and the EU. Libya got a treaty with the EU out of it, plus som financial aid for specific (medically related) projects.

The Palestinian doctor got a Bulgarian citizenship last month, enabling him to also serve the rest of his sentence in Bulgaria, and thus get pardonned by the Bulgarian president.

Medics Jailed in Libya Arrive Home (LA Times)
HIV medics freed after Libya-EU deal (Reuters)
Bulgarian Medics Pardoned (Sofia Echo, Bulgaria)
Libya Frees Bulgarian Nurses in AIDS Case (NY Times)