French President Jacques Chirac spoke out on behalf of...

French President Jacques Chirac spoke out on behalf of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor facing the death penalty in Libya, the French embassy in Sofia said. "President Jacques Chirac, in expressing great concern about the Bulgarian nurses, called on (Libyan leader) Colonel Kadhafi to find a just and rapid solution to this very painful case," the embassy said in a statement.
The statement came in response to an article in Bulgaria's Troud newspaper accusing Chirac of doing nothing about the problem during his 24-hour visit to Tripoli, which ended on November 26.
The nurses and doctor were sentenced to death in May by a Libyan tribunal after it found that they had infected more than 400 children with the virus that causes AIDS by knowingly injecting them with tainted blood products.
All six defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges and two of the nurses and the doctor said during the trial that they were tortured into making confessions.