Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov asked his Libyan...

Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov asked his Libyan counterpart, Muammar Gheddafi, to intervene on behalf of six Bulgarians facing the death penalty in Libya. Five nurses and a doctor detained in Libya from February 1999 were charged with infecting children with the HIV virus in the Benghazi hospital. The same charges have been levelled against eight Libyans and a national from another Arab state. According to Libyan authorities, 23 out of 393 children infected with HIV have died of AIDS so far. Stoyanov offered condolences for the death of the children but said he cannot believe his countrymen are guilty of having deliberately "caused such a tragedy." He asked Gheddafi to "use his influence" to have the February 28 trial postponed to allow Bulgarian lawyers to familiarize themselves with the case and defend the accused. Foreign Minister Nadezhda Mihailova was holding secret talks to obtain pardon for the medics through the mediation of other countries -Turkey and Egypt - that possess influence in Tripoli. A source said that during the bargaining the issue of writing off Libya's debt to Bulgaria was raised. If the six defendants escaped the death penalty and received life sentences, under the international convention between Bulgaria and Libya they may be exchanged for Libyan prisoners in Bulgarian jails and serve their sentences on home soil.