Joyous Welcome in Sofia For Freed Medical Crew

Pardon Follows Transfer of Six Convicted in Libyan HIV Case

LONDON, July 24 -- Five Bulgarian medical workers arrived home to an emotional welcome Tuesday after more than eight years in Libyan prisons, closing a case that caused international furor over Libyan justice and raised questions about whether a ransom was paid for their release.

The five nurses and a doctor -- a Palestinian who was granted Bulgarian citizenship last month -- flew to freedom aboard a French government jet. On stepping down from the plane in Sofia, Bulgaria's capital, they received a pardon from their president, bouquets and the embraces of teary-eyed family members.

"I know I am free, I know I am on Bulgarian soil, but I still cannot believe it," declared nurse Kristiana Valcheva, 48.

Arrested in 1999, she and the others were sentenced to death on charges of intentionally infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Libyan authorities accused them of conducting an AIDS experiment that went wrong.

The nurses and the doctor blamed the infections on poor hygiene in the hospital where they worked. Independent medical studies showed that the infections there predated their arrival by several years.

Their release followed complex behind-the-scenes negotiations that resulted in the payment of hundreds of millions of dollars, much of it from foreign sources, to the families of the infected children and promises of improved trade and aid ties between Libya and the European Union.

European and U.S. officials depicted the release as the latest step by Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi to normalize relations between his nation, once a pariah, and its former adversaries in the West.

"It's the end of a nightmare for these women and this man. Everyone in Europe is convinced that they are innocent," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose wife, Cécilia, went to Libya on Sunday with Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the E.U. external relations commissioner, to press for the release. Both women accompanied the medical workers on their flight from Libya on the French presidential plane.

At a news conference in Paris, Sarkozy announced that he would travel to Libya on Wednesday "to help Libya rejoin the international community." The North African country wants greater trade with its wealthy European neighbors to the north, as well as development aid.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a statement, applauded the prisoners' release, calling it "an important step toward Libya's continuing positive re-engagement with the international community."

Human rights groups reacted with both relief and outrage. "This is a welcome decision on the part of the Libyan authorities," said Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa program. "They should now proceed to implementing much-needed reforms to the criminal justice system to ensure that nothing like this can ever happen again in Libya."

Susannah Sirkin, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, said in a statement: "We are relieved that the nurses' and medic's imprisonment is over. But this is really an outrageous case, in which the lives of these nurses and medic were literally ransomed for $400 million. Human rights, civil rights, and scientific evidence were completely ignored. There is nothing to prevent the future scapegoating of foreign health workers and holding them hostage in exchange for foreign aid."