LIBYA. EU BACKS CAMPAIGN TO FREE BULGARIAN NURSES CONDEMNED TO DEATH

a European Union official backed Bulgaria’s attempts to secure the release of five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya for the infection of hundreds of children with the AIDS virus. 
"It is in the heart of the European Union, the European Commission and the EU member states to work actively for the case of the Palestinian and the Bulgarians in Libya," EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn told the Bulgarian parliament.
A Libyan court sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death in May 2004 after they were found guilty of infecting 380 children, of whom 46 died, while they were working in the hospital of the eastern coastal city of Benghazi.
"You have our compassion and solidarity and we hope we will reach a satisfactory solution," he said on a visit to Sofia linked with Bulgaria's EU candidacy.
During talks with Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov, Rehn also expressed that EU's conviction that the Bulgarians were innocent.